Please Help, I Was Thrown Into Another Dimension
by multifandomhoe
Summary: The guys from PDTMP world are thrown into the Superpowereds world. I see no way this goes badly.
1. Chapter 1

You know , I used to love Halloween. I got to help my dad make my costume, dress up, and mom always knew the statistical breakdown on which houses had the best candy, and the best routes to avoid raisins. But as a senior in high school the magic seemed to have left.

Ray, Claire, and I were making our way through the under-city, on our way to the de facto hiding place for things to dangerous to be above ground. I knew from the day I found that dragon statue that it was dangerous. Heck, even then I understood that anything with an inter-dimensional protector was dangerous. Sadly I had made the mistake of thinking that I was immune to it.

Early today the inscrutable machine and I had been working in the base when I heard a high pitched squeal. Honestly, over four years of being a villain, and then a superhero that was not too far out of the ordinary. It was never a good sign, but it was pretty normal. The thing that made me worried was that it was coming from my trophy room. I kept some dangerous stuff in there.

I hightailed it over there while sending Ray, Claire, and my dad a text from my suits internal systems. Ray was there before I was, the jerk. "

"Yes, my dark mistress?" he said in his ever so odd, ever so sexy English accent.

"Ray, grab a protective suit, and get back here. Dad should be on his way." I said in my best leader of a successful hero team voice. He looked a bit surprised, until he heard the sound coming from the trophy room. He connected the dots and turned and ran for the supply closet.

Closet may be underselling it a bit. It was a collection of all the useful equipment that me, dad, and every villain we took down could build. I knew for a fact that the blast suits that dad had given me were still in there somewhere, and those were Ray and Claire's best bet for avoiding an ill effects of whatever was going off in my trophy room.

Claire jogged up to me, already in her protective suit. Of course she was. Claire had an amazing power, a gorgeous body, and was secretly one of the smartest people I had ever met. Not a mad scientist smart, but she could keep up with my mom in chess.

"What have we got going on here ?" Claire asked through the suits protective filtration systems speaker.

'I wish I knew. I have dad on his way for backup, and Ray is getting suited up as we speak. "I tried to keep my voice I steady and professional, but it was always a bad day if something in the trophy room was making noise.

"Understood. We ll head in as soon as Ray gets back, in case the noise is a time sensitive matter ." Claire managed to stay as aloof and seemingly uncaring as always, even when discussing life or death noises.

Ray made it around the corner as she was talking, suit on, and legs pumping like there was an all you can eat buffet on sale.

I gathered my troops and we made our way into to the trophy room. As we entered I saw the notification on my helmet screen that Dad was here. He must have driven like a mad man to get here so soon. We lived close to the school, but still. We entered through the airlock that dad had give me, and into the half museum, half storage unit that was the trophy room.

It took me about three milliseconds to realize just how deep the hole we were standing in was. The statue was one of my first, and most dangerous trophies. The guardian that had been keeping it safe was no joke, and it had nearly taken down Mech. Not to mention that the coins it held could mess with the minds of some of the most powerful people in the world. For goodness sake, it was even able to confuse Claudia.

There was a black dot over the bowl of the statue, and it seemed to be pulsing in time with the SqUeellING noise I had heard outside. The only difference was inside the airlock of the trophy room it was more like the sonic device that BoomBoom had used on me last year. Thankfully mine and dads protective gear had included dampening tech. Claire and Ray both tripped a little, but stayed standing. Dampening wasn't perfect, and this was a noise to be reckoned with.

I opened a video link to the suits Claire and Ray were wearing.

"Ok guys, this may be a bigger problem than I thought." I said over my video link.

"Yeah, no kidding." Claire said with a shocking amount of worry. On any one else that amount of worry would be mild concern, but for a Lutra that was the next best thing to incoherent babbling.

"May I suggest a retreat?" Ray asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed over the ever growing noise coming from my statue.

All three of us backed into the airlock, and through the back door.

Dad was there waiting on us, looking shocked.

"Pumpkin, what is going on in there?"

"Dollar in the jar when you get home. I reminded. The statue is going off, and we need to figure out a solution, fast."

"The statue that had an inter-dimensional horror guarding it?"

"Don t remind me, dad." I muttered. "I think we may need the machine to eat it, but I have no idea what will happen if we do."

"That may be the best action we can take, but you re right. I have no idea what destroying an artifact that strong may do either, but I doubt it will be something pleasant."Dad was WAY too worried for comfort.

"How about the undercity?" Ray said with as much forced calm as he could muster.

"Good plan. I ll head upstairs, and put the dome up." Dad turned tail, and headed up to the top layer of my lab.

The dome was a protective countermeasure he had designed when he first found out about the lab. It was the same dome he had on our house, and it should be strong enough to keep the norms safe if we failed to get the statue under control.

I ran back into the trophy room, and grabbed the statue. I was it's mistress, according to my sorceress friend Barbara, so I should be safe from whatever was going on with it. I ran into the corridor, and the inscrutable machine and I ran as fast as we could towards my under-city entrance.

We made good time, but the noise kept growing louder, and the dot was growing at an alarming rate. Ray just pulled the door off its hinges, and I jumped down, not even using the ladder. The spring loaded hover disks in my suit activated with a blink from me, and slowed me down just before I hit the ground. Ray just did an oh-so-traditional superhero landing, and Claire came soon after with her signature grappling hook.

Ray led the way, his super speed coming in handy, and his knowledge of the under-city coming to even more use. He had spent more time down here than anyone else alive( with the possible exception of lab rat ) , and he knew it as well as anyone we had found. We had used Evolution s lair for a few items that were too dangerous for the upstairs world, and we all knew that was our best bet.

We turned a corner past the sunken house, and ran past the field of mutated grain. There! We had almost made it. I had no clue what our timeline was, but I was taking no chances. Just a few more seconds and we made it into the lair of the worlds most legendary superhero. It was a jumbled mess of what were certainly powerful artifacts.

I set the artifact down as gently as I could, and started spinning the machine on my wrist. My baby could eat anything, including energy. I only hoped it would be fast enough. I threw the machine down on the artifact, and yelled "EAT!" to activate it. Claire and ray stood behind me, obviously scared, but neither looked ready to run. The machine started chewing on the base, but the sound only grew worse. We stared, transfixed. The black orb on top of the bowl just kept growing.

My baby kept chewing, not even fazed by the noise. Tiny plates of pure jade started popping up on the machine, and it only ate faster. Scarily the orb only kept growing, exponentially faster. None of us knew what we should do, but we all knew the machine was our best bet of surviving what ever was happening. I grabbed Ray s hand, and squeezed. Claire grabbed my other hand, and we all knew that we were in this crap show together.

Looking back on it now, we should have run as fast as we could. But, in that moment all we could do was stare at the statue. The globe, for it was a globe now, started to pulse. My power seemed to kick in, and I got images that I will probably never understand. I saw millions of earths, numbers, symbols, and so many other things I cannot describe. Never the less, my body stayed still. I don t know if it was a side effect of the orb, or just adrenaline. The orb pulsed one more time, and exploded. It was nothing like a bomb. I knew bombs, heck my power LOVED bombs. This was more like an implosion. The blackness seemed to pull the three of us into the void, and we flew towards the pin point of light I could now just barely see.

I have no clue how long we were in the darkness. When we finally stopped the light had gone from a pinpoint to absolutely blinding. It took me a hot minute to realize that the blinding light was actually the sun. Yeah, for a super powerful mad scientist that took an embarrassingly long amount of time.

Claire

When the pulse had started I assumed the worse. Honestly, over the course of four years of hero work I had never been so scared. I hid my emotions well though, mom had made sure that part of my training was well ingrained. The most famous cat burglar in the world, a legendary grifter, and renowned seductress. My mother. I loved the women, and everything she had taught me, but no one can prepare your for being a real hero, or villain. But, she did prepare me for a lot, and being thrown into a strange place with no idea how was actually one of them. When I was 10 we did drills where I would wake up in a new city, and have to get home on my own. She always watched me, to be sure I was safe, but I had to make my own way. Penny was the leader of the inscrutable machine, but I knew far more about survival in a new place.

I started with a good look around. A city, which was a good sign. A sign said Brewster hardware . Ray collapsed on the ground, head buried in Penny s boobs. Wait! What? Never mind, I ll tease them for that later. Another sign for McDonalds. Well, two English signs, good start. A Starbucks! Perfect!

I walked over to Penny, and pulled Ray out of her cleavage. They were both slowly waking up, Penny first, then Ray. Penny looked dazed, and then muttered sun, obviously you idiot.

Ok, first things first, I needed to get on Wi-Fi and do some research. My phone was a custom model that Brian Ack had made me when he found out that I was into a bit of lite hacking. Maybe I was a bit **too** mission oriented, but really, if Penny was fine, then Ray had to be.

That man had started out strong, and boy, had he gotten stronger. He seemed to grow stronger and faster every week. If I knew my super-humans( and I do ) then he was going to be on the mid end of strong men in the next few months. The amazing thing was how his speed and reflexes had kept up. Bull would always be stronger, but he had near human speed, like most strong men. Ray on the other hand could give our speedy friend Will a ( pardon the pun) run for his money.

I pulled the two slowpokes off the ground, and headed towards the hardware store. "Penny, you need to get into civies, and five minutes ago. Ray, you and me need to get out of these suits, and need a place to stash them."

I turned my power on its stun setting, and went for the hardware store. I found a tool chest big enough for our suits, and grabbed a pair of coveralls for Penny. That handled I paid the googoo-eyed clerk, and headed back to my team.

We ducked out of site for a quick change session, with both Ray and Penny a mixture of stunned and groggy. Mid-change Penny had the presence of mind to ask the question that was number one on the obvious questions list.

"Where the heck are we?" She asked, voice only somewhat slurred.

"Were about to find out." I said in my best no non-sense voice. But first, coffee.

I got the team to their feet, and we headed for the starbucks. Thank the gods for caffeine and free Wi-Fi. Once inside I grabbed us all some sweet, sweet caffeine, and headed back to the still dazed duo. Ray, holding Penny s hand, looked at me expectantly as I sat down with the drinks.

"Brewster, Illinois!" I announced proudly.

"We went all the way from LA to Illinois!?" Penny gasped as she sipped her latte.

Ray had the same shock painted on his face. He had come a long way since getting superpowers, moving out, and becoming a recognized hero, but new places and situations still put him more on edge than the rest of us.

I nodded to the team as I hooked up my superphone to the Starbucks Wi-Fi. The woman at the counter was all to happy to tell the adorable little girl everything I asked.

"So it seems." I said out loud. "Give me a moment to find out exactly where, and I ll call Brian to arrange transport home."

Penny nodded in agreement. "Good plan, he's probably still outside the dome, and worried sick."

I got our coordinates, and called Brian s number. My shock must have peeked through when my phone said number not found .

Ray immediately asked "What is it?"

I ignored him, and turned to Penny. "Penny, you know Brian's number by heart, right?" She looked a bit sick at that, but nodded. She recited it, and I knew something else had gone very wrong.

I cycled through my Mom's number, Lucyfar's, BB's, and all had the same result. Will's number had been picked up by someone who had never herd of him, and the same happened with Cassie's.

Penny and Ray watched on with ever more worried looks as I made my calls, and they all ended with no good news. I flipped up my power a little, and got the date from an unsuspecting hipster sitting near us.

I turned to the team, and started."The good news is that we can rule out time travel. The bad news is we can't rule out much else. I'm not sure if we changed the fabric of reality, or got shoved through it."

Penny looked sicker than ever, and Ray looked like I had just told him Christmas and thanksgiving had just given birth to a combination holiday.

"So you're saying my parents don't exist here!?" Penny exclaimed far too loudly.

"I don't know about that, but what I am saying is that I can t get in contact with anyone. I tried. I need time to see if I can track down our parents and friends, but something definitely changed with that, I guess... implosion."

"Definitely implosion." said the much happier, and quieter Ray.

"What the heck you two?" Penny asked angrily. Our family, our friends, our world , may be gone, and you're concerned with implosion versus explosion!

I knew I had to play the calming friend role, or Penny may do something stupid.

"Penny ," I said with my calmest, most placating tone "we don't know anything for sure yet. What we do know is that all of us are alive, and safe. We were at the epicenter of the blast, so if were alive, they must be too. We need to get back on our feet, and address this like the professionals we are. Let's take stock, and find a place to lay low."

Penny calmed a bit, and Ray held her close on the couch.

"I have my suit, Vera, Brenda, the night-night gun, my teleport bracers, the hover disks, and the machine." Penny listed off.

Ray held up his gloved hands, and said "blast gloves, night stick, and my mask."

I had my phone, some cash, lock picks, and a couple of fake ID s. Back in my costume I had my anti-grave insoles, and grappling hook. Oh, and the push rod.

"Ok guys, we need cash, and a hidey-hole." I stood, grabbed my tool chest, and phone. I googled the nearest landfill, and led the other two out onto the street.

"Penny, you remember back when we were playing villain at the dump? I think we may need to do a repeat performance"

She got what I meant in no time, and popped out her light bike. I grabbed my new and improved anti-grav insoles, slipped them into my shoes, and we started off. Penny had obviously put my phone up on her helmet display, as she shot off without needing directions. I was still a bit worried about her mental state, but I trusted her to keep cool head. If she could keep calm through potentially world ending threats, she could keep calm through this.

Ray still needed directions, so I convinced him to pick me up, and we started moving along as quick as he could run. It only took a few minutes to make it to the much uglier dump. I suppose California had aesthetic standards to maintain.

Ray

I started running, Claire's weight not even noticeable. I was feeling a little guilty about Penny. I know I should have been more sensitive, but the opportunity to live my life without my parents was too amazing of an offer to pass up. It had been hell ever since I had gotten my emancipation. I wanted to feel a desire to go home, but with my two best friends here I had all I needed.

Claire guided my way to the dump, hand signals used over speach while I ran. We were nowhere near as fast as Penny on her light bike, but we made good time. We did get some looks, but nothing that made me worry. It hadn't occurred to me until then that we may be somewhere that super powers were not as common, or even non-existent. Thankfully that did not seem to be the case. I still felt guilty when we got to the dump, but I had no idea how to address it. Instead I just grabbed my girl in a hug, and tried to apologize.

"It occurs to me that I was a total ass back in the coffee shop." I whispered into her ear.

"It's fine Ray, I just want to be back home. But Claire is right, they have to be alive, and we can find them."

"I agree, we need to focus on that right now. We are professionals, and we can solve this. Lets grab some resources, and find a place to plan, and sleep." I tried to tamp down my excitement and be supportive, but I admit, it was a struggle.

"Come on you two! We need to get in and get out, this is not the time to get in trouble for trespassing." Claire was yelling from up on one of the hills.

"Let's go, my love. Claire is correct, as usual." I pulled Penny into my arms, and jumped the fence over to the mounds of garbage.

"Machine! Eat! Recycle everything you eat into one foot by one foot bricks. Whenever you have excess materials make mini-machines with the same directions. Gold is the only exception, bring all of that to me.' My darling Penny gave directions with the same authority she used to direct heroes in battle.

We watched the machines for a while, hand in hand. Claire was typing away on her phone, doing only god knows what.

"We'll be ok." I whispered to her, squeezing her hand lightly.

"I know. I trust you and Claire with my life."

Claire started walking over to us , phone still in hand. "Guys, we are have definitely traveled interdimensionally. This place has VERY different heroes, different villains, different people, and, I'm sorry Penny, but no sign of our parents."

Penny sank a bit in my arms, but stayed standing. I gave her a squeeze, and asked Claire "What else did you find out? I assume that wasn't all you managed to dig up?"

"It was not!" she said with all the pride a Lutra could produce, which was quite a significant amount. "We re still on earth, in America, and LA still exists. That all should be obvious, but I still checked. Super-humans here are called Supers as short hand. They also seem to have people with powers, but no control. They'll soon be a thing of the past though, a test group just graduated the HCP. The HCP is a training school for heroes. They stil-"

"Wait!?" Penny belted. "They have a school for heroes here?"

'They have a full program to train heroes here. Like a college degree, but in hero work. They're at actual colleges too."

"I had to interject. Wait, do you **have** to go to college to be a hero here? What about younger heroes?"

Claire went on at that prompt. "There are no younger heroes. Here you have to go through the program to be a hero. It seems like they are a mix of our heroes, and the military and police. Very efficient of you ask me. They do still seem to have an obsession with crazy costumes, though. I see one guy on here who is lugging around a baseball bat, and wearing a cowboy hat. He seems to be a local, and one of the former powereds. Oh! They're the guys with control issues! It looks like a few just got to be heroes, made it through the program as part of testing the procedure that made them supers."

A voice carrying a southern accent broke over the hill, and a yell of "Hands up fuckers! We need to have a serious talk about super tech and trespassing!"

Claire gave a small gasp and she said "Shit. That would be the bat guy."

Roy

Finally. A call that is something more interesting than a robbery. Dispatch came over the earpiece with her usual pseudo-European accent." Ettin, we have a report of three individuals using super tech at the Brewster landfill. Reason is unknown. One is a known super, and we assume that the builder of the technology is also in attendance. The super seems to have enhanced strength, and we have reports of enhanced speed. No other powers or weapons known at this time. Your orders are to take Coma to the site, and investigate."

Roy nodded, and then, realizing that he was on the earpiece, said "Will do. Is Titan coming along, or just us two?"

Dispatch replied immediately. "Titan is currently engaged in another mission, and you are the closest to the incident. Coma will be coming as ranged support."

"Acknowledged" Roy replied. Coma was good support, and the only subtlety hero on the gentle hammers team. A telepath with a useful secondary ability Coma had graduated from Korman university. Titan was allowed two interns, and he snatched Coma up, knowing that The Gentle Hammers needed someone to handle the information gathering. She also came endorsed by his boyfriend Jeremiah, which meant she was _very_ good

"Coma!" I bellowed, grabbing my bat "We got a mission, and it s me and you, babe!"

Coma rolled her eyes in a way that made me even more interested.

"Lets go, horn dog. We have robots to investigate." She started floating out the base door, and I followed, enjoying the view.

We made our way, her flying, and me getting some jumping practice. I still wasn't as good as Titan, but 8 months of practice had narrowed the gap. The dump was shockingly close, or given the location of our base, not so shockingly close. Titan had made things better for the Hammers, but we still kept the base, just with some improvements.

We came onsite, Coma heading around to the back of the pile they were standing on, and I made myself known, with style.

I gave a call out to them, and they all turned at once, robots working around them. The weird beetle things moved around the hills of garbage like it was a massive anthill. The three of them was just standing there, two holding hands, listening to the cute little girl. Damn, she was just too cute, like a puppy and a panda put together.

I was starting at her for some time, when Hershel's voice broke into my head. "ROY! Wake up, you've been staring at that girl for almost a minute. She is obviously a super, and you need to snap out of it!"

I shook my head, still a bit fuzzy. Eyes closed I could think again. She must have some sort of distraction ability. I opened my eyes, staring at the ground, an tried to get a gauge of the battlefield from their feet. The girls were still standing together, but the teenage boy had started walking towards me, hands up. Good, at least he was not opening with an attack.

"Please don't attack!" He yelled across the piles of crap.

"Give me some reason not to! You kids are trespassing, and using some sort of super tech to do only god knows what! I need an explanation, and fast." I tried to keep my voice from being to mean, but still let them know that I take no shit.

"We were dumped here, and we needed to make some money. The machine is a recycling machine, and this dump is going to be filled with all sorts of metals we could sell for cash. We mean no harm, but we have to survive."

The boy looked to be telling the truth, and he had kept his hands up, not attacking. I knew dispatch had said he was a strong man type, so he was not likely to be bluffing an attack.

I lowered my bat, which I had forgotten I had raised. "Tell the mind girl to turn off her power, or this is going to go badly!" I yelled.

"Claire!" He yelled behind him, and the fuzz covering my head went dead. I looked up, safe to look around again. The two girls were still standing behind him, but one had put on some funky bracelets up and down her arms.

"Coma!" I whispered into my earpiece."I need a read on those three, and fast."

"They're telling the truth, and have no desire to attack. The problem is that they are either VERY far from home, or we have a memory super fucking with peoples minds. I am going to drop them, and I need to you grab them. This is something big, and we need a full-fledged hero on it now." Coma was deadly serious, voice containing enough worry that I knew shit was going to fly, and soon.

Right at that thought the three dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Titan

When I got the call from Dispatch saying to get my ass home( though in more work appropriate terms) I knew something bad had come up. You don't just pull someone from a DVA meeting for lunch time. I was with Blaine, and we were going over the one year report of my time with the Hammers. It was going smoothly, but I honestly wanted to punch something out of boredom.

When the call from Dispatch came in I wished I had kept my mouth shut. The worst part was that Blaine got a call on his cell phone at the same time. We both answered immediately, a call during a meeting was going to be vital information.

"Titan, you are needed back at the gentle hammers base immediately. We have a possible threat on site, though it is contained. Zero is also receiving a temporary activation for the mission, due to the unknown powers at work." Dispatch, calm and collected as usual, rattled off the message in my ear.

I stood, pushing back my chair a little harder than really necessary, and looked at Blaine, who nodded.

"I have been temporarily reactivated, much to my displeasure. We will leave now. Transport will arrive in 15 seconds."

True to his word, 14 seconds later the door flew open, with Mr. Transport pushing it.

"Let's go, gentlemen." Came tumbling out of his mouth, and with a pop, we were off.

No time later we appeared back home, in the Hammers base. It was still a rundown warehouse, but now it was a homey rundown warehouse. Deadlift and Kaijou stood at attention, obviously waiting for us to show up.

Deadlift spoke immediately. "They're in the shelter Sirs. So far they have not been at all combative, but it's the story they have to tell, and the fact that Coma is backing it up that brings you here. I'll give you the cliffs note version on the way down."

The shelter was actually a renovated storm shelter that Coma, along with help from Ettin's classmate, Technomancer had modified. They had turned it into a safe room, a place to hold secure conversations, keep assets, or get laid if the upstairs was occupied. On the surface it was a shabby lounge, ugly couch and mini-fridge included. The tech, both human and super, that had gone into it made it a surprisingly secure room, safe from teleporters, and more mundane threats, like listening devices.

Deadlift started right in, walking and talking. "Three suspected supers showed up on dispatches radar for using super tech in a landfill. Ettin and Coma were sent to investigate, and apprehend if needed. Once there Ettin began a conversation with the three, while Coma was on hand to fact check via her telepathy. Once inside their minds she got some information that disturbed her enough to bring the three in for further investigation. Apparently they believe themselves to be from a different earth, or separate dimension. She dropped them, and Ettin and her transported them back to the base safe room for questioning. None of them have shown any hostility, and all claim to be heroes on their home earth." Deadlift had reached a hatch in the floor, and stopped talking to bend and open it.

"Coma came to the conclusion that we either had someone who made them honestly believe their story, or they were telling the truth. Either way, she felt justified bringing them in for further investigation."

Titan had been a hero for a long time, and Blaine had also had a full career. Both knew that neither option was good. The ability to modify memory was such a rare gift, and the other option was even more terrifying. Many heroes had spatial powers, or could manipulate reality and space. Some could even manipulate time, though those were some of the rarest supers in the world. Never had a super been found that could prove or disprove the multiverse theory, and none had shown the ability to travel between said universes. Still, new supers got new powers every day, and anything was possible.

We descended down a steep flight of stairs to the safe room.I could feel that Blaine had reactivated his field around us as a safety measure. We entered to see three kids sitting on the ratty couch, drinking sodas, as Coma stood watch. They all seemed at ease, if a bit rattled.

Coma introduced the three to the entering Heroes. "Hey! These are Penny, Ray, and Claire!" pointing to each in turn. "They were found recycling ( said with air quotes ) a landfill to make some cash, but they forgot to get the companies permission to be onsite." She seemed more amused than angry or worried.

She went on. "Don't you boys worry, I scanned their thoughts, and everyone is peaceful."

I looked the kids over. No obvious super traits, but that hardly meant anything.

Interesting. Very interesting. Young, seventeen or eighteen maybe, but the looked like they had been around the block a few times. If their story was true then maybe they had.

I stepped forward, introducing myself. "Hi there, I'm Titan. Coma tells us you have had quite the day."

Roy stepped forward, bat in hand. "I ll say. It seems that the Halloween curse is still in effect, if these three are telling the truth. Coma here says they are, so I'm leaning towards believing them, no matter how bat shit crazy it may sound."

I grabbed the easy chair, and pulled over another for Blaine. "Ok you three, I got the fast version on the way here, but this is a story that needs to be told in person."

Penny

Titan was a beast of a man. Heck, he looked like he could give Bull a run for his money. He came in, and after introductions he asked for our story. We gladly gave it, and the psychic girl, Coma, nodded whenever he or the other man looked to her for confirmation. I still had no idea how she brought us down, but it was impressive.

Titan looked concerned, and nodded in all the right places. Everyone present seemed to be taking the story well, which was shocking, honestly. When we finally got to the part where Claire was kicking me awake in Brewster he stopped me.

"So you woke up, with no sign of that statue to be seen?" He asked in a voice that wanted confirmation, not with disbelief.

"Yeah!" Claire said with far too much enthusiasm. "I thought the machine must have finished eating it, but I can't be sure."

So. She was back in her "cute little girl who was far to innocent and adorable to be a threat" gear.

I agreed with her, and finished up the story with no more interruptions. Titan looked thoughtful, and Blaine looked at us with a serious expression that was much scarier than I thought a man so ordinary could produce.

After a moment he stood, and spoke to the room. "I am going to do something that is a deeply held secret of mine, and I expect it to stay that way. My abilities allow me to nullify any leftover vestiges of a supers ability in another person. For the sake of our own world I must insist you three allow me to use this technique on you. This is the only way we can be sure that this is not a mental manipulation power at work."

"Of course!" I said immediately. "We're happy to do whatever is needed to prove our side of the story."

Ray did not look happy at all, but he and Claire both nodded after I spoke.

The older man walked over, and held out his hand. I gave him mine first. What kind of leader would I be if I expected the others to go before me?

He took my hand in his, and a light tingling started where our flash met, and traveled up and through my body. A pressure released in my head, and I realized that the small voice that always knew everything in the back of my head had gone completely silent. Dead silent, in a way I had not experienced since my emergence in 7th grade. I tried to keep calm, and I stayed as stoic as I could, but it was a scary experience. It lasted for almost a minute, and then he let go of my hand. After just a second it was back, muttering as always.

I looked at Ray and nodded to him, and then to Claire. "It tingles, but no pain, I swear to you both." Ray still looked more put out than I expected of him, but he complied, and then Claire after, all with the same effect.

The man took a step back, and looked at Coma. She nodded, and then said aloud to him and Titan "They still have the same thoughts and memories going through their heads. I have to say they are telling the truth, no matter how many questions that brings forth."

Titan nodded slowly at the three of us, all still seated on the couch. "I think I may be able to help you all out with money, both short, and long term. For now I know we can keep you off the streets, but I have another idea that may be able to sustain you all long term. What did you guys do for aftermath cleanup back home?"

Titan had indeed gotten us taken care of. Ray went off first, to a wonderful lady named Miss Daniels. Next up Claire went with the aptly named Mr. Transport to meet up with a young lady named Alice. When it was my turn to head out I asked who I was going to be with. Titan looked amused, and just said "One of the only people who may be able to keep up with your tech head."

I opened my eyes after the Poof the teleportation gave off faded. Seriously, this transport guy was amazing! I opened my eyes to see a lab that almost held up to my dad's specs. A short gangly young man was at one of the work benches tinkering with a staff. The whole thing screamed superscience weapon . A weird blade that my power seemed to like, a glowing crystal, and buttons and hatches all over the thing made it look like something Red Eye, or the expert would be selling in china town.

Titan startled the man with a grunt. "Ahem. Will, this is the young lady I told you about. She seemed like she would get along with you and yours."

Will stood, recovering his poise. "Ah yes! The young traveler. I do want to hear more on that story. Welcome to my home!"

With a look around I saw some out of place touches, like a couch with a blanket and pillow, and a hotplate and fridge. It took me a moment, but I realized that he did in fact live here, not just work here.

I stepped forward to introduce my self, and we shook hands. "Penny Ack. Back home I was the hero Bad Penny. Mad scientist and lover of all things nerd. Nice to meet you!"

"Will Murray" , he responded. "I am sorry, but you don t yet have clearance to learn my hero name. Also I must warn you that if you deduce my name from context, that is a secret you must keep under any circumstances."

"Understood." I quickly assured him. "I never want to get to personal when it comes to the hero side of our lives."

"Ah yes" he muttered. "Titan told me that you had been doing hero work for some time, back on your home earth. You must tell me about that also. I cannot fathom a child being sent to into our world so young."

"Well to be fair, my friends and I were an exception to the rule." I started to dive into the story, but Titan interrupted us.

"I am sorry to have to go so soon, but arrangements must be made with the DVA. Power assessments and such have to be setup. I will be in contact. Have a good night Penny, Will." With that he was Poofed away by Mr. Transport.

I turned back to Will. "Well, as I was saying."

Still Penny, cause reasons.

I had been here for three days, and I was getting antsy. Will was ALWAYS working, or asleep. I knew he couldn t tell me about his days, because he had his secrete identity, but that still put a major damper on conversation. Not to mention that he was almost always out doing actual hero work. The heroes here seemed to spend a lot more time on the job than we did.

I had seen Ray and Claire once, and they were both adjusting well. We had all met at Miss Daniel s house for Sunday dinner, in typical southern fashion. Sally( she insisted we all call her Sally ) was an amazing host, and seemed to be doing Ray a world of good. She always complemented his appetite, and he always loved her cooking, which _was_ amazing.

We all got to meet some more friends of the family. A silver haired man named Vince was there, along with his girlfriend Eliza, Sally s son Hershel, and his girlfriend Mary, plus Claire s chaperons , Alice, and Nick. They all seemed to be in freakishly good shape, which I took as a sign of hero work. Of course I stayed away from personal topics like that, since I am a professional, no matter what earth I was stuck on.

I was a bit worried about Claire. She seemed to be taking to Alice a bit _too_ well. When I heard talk of a shopping trip Mary and I both had the same "Deer about to be hit by a school bus" look. I had a feeling that Alice had a similar reputation to Claire's when it came to clothes.

But crimminey, was I ever bored, just sitting in Will's lab for so long. He had made it clear I was allowed to leave, but I had no idea what to do. For the past years my life was all about the inscrutable machine. Now that part was stripped away.

I did some tinkering, but I avoided making anything so that I didn't use up all of Will's supplies. Thank Lucyfar that Titan came over when he did. I was minutes away from having the machine eat and re-assemble the building.

He came in with a grin on his face, and I knew something was up.

"Do you remember what I told you about cleanup contracts around the country?" He asked in a jovial voice.

"Of course!" I exclaimed, looking forward to doing literally anything not inside the apartment.

"Well" He replied, grin still in place "Blaine has gotten your identities taken care of with the DVA. They have a lot of experience making them for heroes, so your guys were not a problem. Now that you officially exist in our world you can start picking up some work with that machine of yours."

I grinned like Ray at thanksgiving dinner. "So this means I can start helping out again, and make some money!"

"That it does. I have a friend, former hero turned industry giant that said he wants to give you a hands on interview. IF you want, that is." He looked at me with a look that said he knew very well that I wanted to go to that interview.

"YES YES YES" I yelled, jumping up and down with excitement.

"I thought it might interest you, just a bit. And I have to admit, that machine of yours is one impressive piece of tech. Will even told me he can t make heads-nor-tails of it."

"My dad said the same thing, and so did every other mad scientist back home." I tried to explain how mad-sci tech was broken down into levels back home while grabbing my shoes, and my tool kit. Just because I was off hero duty doesn't mean I get to go out without my toys.

We made our way out the door, and down to street level. Titan had a truck that was oddly similar to Bull s, but it looked much more road safe for us normal sized humans.

We headed to a more downtown area of Brewster, making good time, but never speeding. When we got to our destination I was a bit confused. It looked like a simple one level office suite. When we got inside it was clear that something far more interesting went on here. All around the office people were scurrying around, some in costumes, some with obvious physical traits to mark them as superhumans. In the center of the room was a selection of 6 giant boards, hovering in a way that said a super had been involved in their creation. We headed towards that area, and the tiny man in costume that seemed to be the epicenter.

"Patch"Titan bellowed "I brought a friend !"

Patch , the tiny man in costume turned towards the noise, which barely broke over the din on the room, and broke into a smile.

"Titan! You bastard! I can t believe you are allowed to look that good after all these years!" Patch spoke with a good natured frustration, and it was clear these two had history.

"Genetics can be a bitch!" Titan said laughing. "I brought along the young tech genius I told you about. I think she may be able to do some good work for you."

"Ah yes, the girl with the recycling machine. I have a little interview project lined up for us." Patch walked us along the floor of the still bustling building to a heavy man in overalls who was arranging and re-arranging lists on one of the floating white boards that were around the office.

"Kickback!" Patch yelled over the noise to the heavy set man at the board. "I need to hop over to that job we discussed in Port. Vallans. We have an interview today!"

The man turned immediately to Patch, and started walking over quickly.

"Yes sir!" He said it like a man who had been military for years. "I have you marked for right before the next trip over to Kansas." Turning to Penny he stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, young lady. I m Kickback, transport specialist for PatchJobs. I ll be getting you three to Port Vallans and back today."

"Nice to meet you, Kickback, Penny Ack, at your service. Are you taking Titan too? You said all three of us."

"That I am Miss. He said he was a mite curious as to how this would go down, so we offered to let him tag along. If you re ready we can head out now. " Kickback spoke with a tight accent, and he definitely gave off the military man aura.

"Ready when you are!" I said, containing as much excitement as I could, which is to say, not that much.

Patch grabbed his shoulder, and we followed suit. A second later I understood why his name was Kickback. The recoil was shocking, but not painful. I gathered my wits, and then realized how much more humid it was.

"Where is port vallans, Might I ask?"

"Louisiana" Patch said with a chuckle. "Titan mentioned you were new to the area, but not that new. This is a pretty major city."

"Sorry." I said sheepishly. "I ve not picked up all the geography yet, but I ll learn quick."

"No worries. We are just about two blocks from the job site. Lets get a move on." Patch started walking and we all followed, no questions asked. He just had the air of a man who knew he was right, and we all trusted him.

It took almost no time at all for me to see where we were headed. What looked like a rubble pile stood where a section of buildings should have been.

"Woah!" I exclaimed. "Is that my audition?"

Patch chuckled. "That it is Miss Penny Ack. Titan tells me your machine can recycle anything, so I want to see it in action. If you would." He pointed to one of the smaller sections of the pile, as he spoke.

"You know I can't make him recycle the building back into shape right?"

"Of course not! I just want you to have the machine sort the materials into stacks, according to what they were before they came down. Timber in one, brick in another, wire, et cetera. From that point the others I have working on the project will be able to move the materials and sell them off. That gives us a blank space to build the new building onto."

I nodded, and gave the machine his orders. "Machine! Eat the smallest stack. Recycle everything back to its old shape, and stack it according to materiel type. Make mini-machines as needed."

My baby did what it was told, as always. It started off small, but soon got some steam built up, and started spitting out Mini-Machines. In about fifteen minutes the whole pile had been consumed. The watchers just stared in shock, which for our worlds was a real compliment.

Titan spoke first. "Well, shit. I have seen some impressive stuff in my time, but that makes my top ten for sure."

Patch just nodded to him. After another brief pause He spoke up too. "Penny, if you want the job you can start tomorrow. That is possibly the most impressive super tech I have seen put to work. Or at least the most impressive tech that was not about to try and kill me."

I just grinned. I knew my baby was amazing, and now they did too!

"I'll take it!" I may have been jumping, just a little. I was not, and am not the type of girl to be stuck at home, so I was thrilled to be able to do something.

"Well Miss" Kickback started "let s go get on the paperwork. There is a mighty load of it."

"Of course!" I squealed "Machine! Detach yourself and let the Mini-Machines finish their work. Have them recycle themselves back when they're done."

I grabbed Kickbacks arm, and we got started on it.

Ray

Miss Daniels was amazing. Truly, I was beginning to understand what Penny and Claire had gotten to experience at home. The cooking was another thing. Miss Daniels said she had gotten experience with her two sons, Roy and Hershel. I had met Hershel a few times, but apparently Roy was working. I suspected that working meant hero work, but I never wanted to get too personal.

Home style cooking had always been a luxury that I got to enjoy at Claire s house, but never something that I enjoyed on a regular basis. I had moved out at fifteen, once we all came out to the community as heroes. It had been shockingly easy to be granted emancipation with two world famous heroes advocating for you. Brian and BB had gotten much more involved when the IM went public. They had gotten me setup in an apartment( payed for by money that I had acquired in my time as a villain. ), trained the three of us in hero work, and even helped the IM make the transition to heroes.

Still, until my time with Miss Daniels, or Sally, I had not gotten to live in a home with such a loving atmosphere.

For the first few days we just got to know each other, with Mr. Transport coming home every evening. For a civilian she knew a shocking amount about the hero world, and she was happy to share her knowledge, to a point. The culture here was different, but most of the rules remained the same. If you knew someones secret, you kept it with your life. This world seemed to have more violence than back home, and it reflected that in its heroes.

That was a scary thought to me. I had never taken pleasure in needless violence. That was one reason I had wanted to get away from the villain world. At least being a hero let me have a purpose for fighting. The heroes here were skilled, and all were scary. None were the money hungry type that sometimes popped up back home. They all had gone through years of work to get to their jobs, and it showed.

Eventually we talked about my past. Sally looked like she wanted to commit a crime herself when she found out the age we started hero work. I tried to explain, but she was having none of it.

"Children your age have no place in that sort of work, much less any younger! I ll have none of it, don t even _think_ of going back out there until you get certified!"

As I said, she was having none of it. When I expressed my interest in going back into the hero line of work( after getting certified, I made sure she knew that) she arranged for a workout partner to help me get back into shape.

I have to admit, I did not expect Ettin to show up for our appointment.

"Hey there, robot boy! How s the new world treating yah?" Ettin was, let us say, enthusiastic to be there.

"It is an adjustment, but Titan and Sally have been amazing, more than I could hope for."

"Yeah" He chuckled "They have their moments. Especially M- Sally. Good people. So I hear you want back into the hero game. It s going to be rough, but you may know that better than any other freshmeat to come into the HCP."

"I have done hero work for the last 4 years of my life, I know what I'm asking for." I tried not to sound annoyed, but I have to admit that going back to being a child was frustrating.

"I m sure you think you do. Let s see how that serves you in a fight though." With no warning he charged me, reminding me of Bull in an odd way. I jumped over his charge, and with no hesitation he twisted and headed for me again.

"Damn boy, you remind me of Chad. I look forward to taking out some unresolved anger on yah. Let s do this."

Claire

Alice was amazing. I had never met someone with so much poise. It was obvious she was a hero, no one was that well trained, in that good of shape, knew that many heroes, and just went to an office job all day. She never mentioned her work in detail, but I knew a bit more than she expected. Just because I had gotten sent off from home didn t mean I was going to slack on my job.

Her father had left her controlling share in her company, and from what I gathered, several others. When she left every morning she said she was off to the office, but her story didn't line up with her actions. I think she knew I had caught onto her lie, but she trusted that I could keep a secret.

One day, while trolling around the internet I found an interesting rabbit trail down a server I had not found before. That in itself was not to unusual, the darkweb was always changing, people moving proxies, or changing names and locations. The real kicker was that this one seemed to be an advertisement. I knew these types of boards from my hero ( and if I am being totally honest, my villain) work. They were usually a job board, and the security was a proof of skill. I was bored, what can I say. Just because I couldn t do active hero work didn t mean that I was going to sit on my fine derriere all day. Welllll, I may have spent some time working through the security, just to kill time, I swear! Once I got through though, I knew something was up.

"Hey there, EC. I know you ve been snooping around. Let s meet. 39.7985 N, 89.6554 W"

EC had to be Eclair. Only a select few knew about that part of my life, and most of them were on a separate earth. I was hooked. All my training told me to leave it the hell alone, but I d been stuck sleeping in an apartment for days, and I needed a challenge.

I sent Alice a text about going out on the town, and borrowing some clothes. I got on a subtle enough dress, but one that still showed enough skin to be appealing. The coordinates were easy enough, the challenge was finding out who knew me well enough to have heard that part of my story. I walked into a busy town square. The perfect place to have a clandestine meeting. People always coming and going, and everyone to busy with their own lives to care about you.

I found a cute bistro shop, and got a coffee and biscotti. Half of cat burglary is finding your entrance, and being patient enough to wait for it. So I sat, and watched. After 5 minutes of enjoying a truly nice cup of espresso, a bump.

Just subtle enough to play it off, but for someone who had trained with Misty The Minx Lutra it ma as well have screamed pickpocket . Normally I would be breaking some poor, unfortunate criminals fingers right now, but I suspected that this may be more than some poor saps attempt to get the fake wallet I was wearing. I waited, and under the guise of getting a tip for the waiter, I found exactly what I expected. A note had been slipped into my wallet.

This was an old tried and true tactic. I do love the classics. Palming it while setting down the cash I got up from my seat, and slowly made my way into the crowd. I quickly got a look at the note, which was thankfully not long winded.

"EC. Blue shirt, plaid pants. Sunglasses. Let's play a game."

I smiled. Finally, something that appealed to my more active side. With the description it took almost no effort to spot the target. Across the square, hot dog in hand.

He started moving almost as soon as I spotted him. Well, if he wanted to play, I ll play.

We started walking, him eating a hot dog, me watching him through my camera phone. We started slow, but he picked up speed. He headed through a crowd. Cute, but I m better than that. Walking out the other side I noticed he had changed his sunglasses, and added a hat. At least he was trying. Moving even faster he ducked into an alley. I followed on, and saw him hitting a roof top. I followed with a quick blast from my grappling hook, and we took it to the roofs.

My mysterious friend started sprinting across the roofs, and I followed. He was in damn good shape, or he had some physical enhancements. I saw him jump, catch a ledge, and flip up, making it look almost as good as I do. We continued making our way along, until he caught a fire escape, and dropped down to the ground. I shot my hook onto the same fire escape, and continued what was now a mad dash after him. I saw him spin around a building, and head inside an office buildings front door.

Now, I may be new to this earth, but I doubted much had changed when it came to security. I followed, taking no more than a second to hide away my grappling hook. I turned on my power just enough to have a general cloudy affect, and went into the same door way. There he was, making his way through the office like he owned the building, and the people in it. He had ditched the glasses, which was smart. They made him look like an ass.

I followed, giving the dumb struck guard a quick smile, and walked right by, keeping a bit of distance between my quarry and I. He walked into the main hall, and to an elevator. He pressed the up button, and I sidled up next to him, still on my phone, doing my best 'ditsy millennial" impression. We got into our car, me turning up my power just a little to convince everyone else that I really did need the whole elevator just to my self.

The young man turned to me and said in possibly the most snarky voice I've heard "Well, Clarie, how was your workout?"

"Workout? That was a light jog, at best. Next time I want a challenge. " I did my best to match the snarky tone, which was much easier than I wanted it to be.

"Actually, I have a challenge for you. That is the purpose of this meeting." With that remark he pulled out his phone, and the elevator froze in place.

"When you came into our world I began to do some research on you. The fact that you are living with my girlfriend not withstanding, I wanted to know all about the mysterious kids who appeared in the middle of Brewster. I had a friend of mine do some telepathic snooping, and low and behold, you happen to be from my metaphorical side of the tracks." He spoke with an ease that made it clear he was dangerous, without needing something as obvious as huge muscles, or a flaming aura.

"Your side of the tracks? I have no idea what you mean. You may have to enlighten me." I said, with as much fake innocence as I could muster without activating my power, and turning him to mush.

"I mean that while your work alongside heroes, you have a different way of approaching things. You are not the one who goes into battle and begins punching at monsters, you re the one who finds the creator of the monsters, and make sure he is neutralized. You re on the side of the light, but still play in the shadows."

I had suspected from the start that he was like me. A brain, more than a powerhouse. Now I knew for sure. He was like me, and I was thrilled to have a friend who was in my line of work.

Claire

"So I need to play distraction. Why not just have me pull up a bench and watch? I'll have just as much fun." I sounded a bit bitchy, but oh well.

"I want to employ you, and I need to get a sense of how potent your power is. This gives me an opportunity to do so in the field, and it gets you out of the house." Nick s voice had morphed from snarky and sarcastic to the voice of someone who had experience commanding troops in battle. I was curious as to what a man this young had seen, but given my past I was not going to question his experience.

"So I have to go along with this plan you have, with no information on the targets, and just use my powers for your gain, and I get nothing. You re going to need to offer me more than a chance at a job here." I may be pushy, but this was my comfort zone, and I knew I needed to lay down the law now.

"How about a jump start on the HCP? I know you and your friends are going to enroll next year. I also know in depth what the curriculum is, and hoe to best prepare in your limited time before enrollment. I can offer you knowledge that most students outside of legacies never get, and I can offer VERY profitable employment down the line."

So. He knew his shit. I was impressed, he had managed to push all the right buttons. Help me, my friends, and give me a shot to stretch my legs. Plus if he _was_ telling the truth about a job later on, I would never be opposed to a cute paycheck.

"Ok. I like what you re selling. Just one more thing. I'm not going to use my powers on a mission without knowing the goal. What do you need a distraction for? And what s your name?"

"I m Nick. What do you know about the Charles Adair scandal ?"

The safe house was secluded, to say the least. I can respect that, but I always preferred the hiding in plain sight method. The plan, at least my part, was to turn my power up to its maximum, and draw out the agents inside. Apparently they had a ranged way to take down the people hiding inside, but no sure fire way of drawing them out. My power worked over a good range, so I should be able to encompass the entire house, putting everyone in side under my spell.

I had never liked using my full power. It made me feel almost dirty. As a kid my max level was enough to draw in some one, and make them loose focus, and make them highly suggestible. Now my high end was near brainwashing. I hated to use it at all, but sometimes you had to do something unpleasant to succeed in a mission. I had my grappling hook, and my energy gloves. I wanted to stay defensive, and the ability to throw an energy attack away from my self and my team seemed like my best bet right now.

Nick had showed up with a tall Asian man named Jerome, and the young hero I recognized as Coma.

"Ok nick, I m making my approach. Coma may be immune to my power, but I doubt you or Jerome is. I recommend closing your eyes." I turned my power up to it's max, and slid up to the house in my bear costume.

"Hey in there!" I yelled with my "cute and innocent" voice. "I have cookies for sale, and I would love to give you all a sample! Come on out!"

The poor bastards had no chance. My power at this level would be enough to make someone shoot their best friend, so getting them to walk outside for cookies was a joke. As soon as they were out Coma started walking up. She was smart about it, keeping to the shadows, but she could have walked up with a full marching band and they wouldn't have noticed.

They went down easy. Four professionals, who had seen combat and horrors, taken down by a girl with cuteness powers.

 **Author note**

 **Hello all. I want to apologize for the issues with this chapter's punctuation. Thanks to the person who told me to fix my damn quotation marks! There was an issue during upload, and a lot of my original punctuation and formatting got removed. I am editing both chapters now, and will double check the upload in the future. So sorry for the problems.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ray

Ettin and I had been training on and off for several weeks now. I honestly felt like I was fighting Bull at first, but Ettin was made all the more dangerous by his bat. Bull had always relied on his near indestructible body to act as a shield and a weapon. Ettin did the same thing, but that damned bat of his added range, and it was a nightmare to fight off.

I did feel like I was making some progress, but I never had a doubt that in a real fight the most I could do was run away, or play distraction. Ettin was FAR stronger than I am, but I could outspeed him, and I was more flexible. I had the feeling that he spent his time training the be stronger, but I had spent time doing gymnastics and parkour. It came in handy when I was running away, but when I tried to fight him it was near useless. I needed to train more, and I knew that better than ever.

Ettin had given me a workout plan, and I followed it to a T. Miss Daniels, I mean Sally, had been so supportive of me, and I knew she had experience raising heroes. I never got personal, but it was obvious after living with her for weeks. She always asked how training had gone, was always on board with my extra work, and the FOOD was always amazing. My metabolism was bad enough back home, but now that I had really kicked up the training I was almost always starving. Sally never missed a beat, always saying how she loved a man with a good appetite.

Friday seemed to be a normal( well, normal is subjective in the hero world ) day of training with Ettin. We had plans to go out to a rock quarry and do some sparring, along with some weight training. Titan had told me when I first started that the gym was a decent way to build muscle, but it left out all the non major muscle groups, and the stabilizing muscles that were worked in actual labor. I had never been a gym rat, so this was not a great blow to me. He had taken me to a junk yard that was local, and that I could easily run to with my enhanced speed. There he had put me through Ettin's workout plan, using cars, axles, and other junk instead of the machines in a gym. I had to admit, the plan seemed to be working. I was getting stronger, and my speed and reflexes were growing from the sparring and parkour I did in my downtime and with Ettin.

Sorry, I got off track there. Friday was looking to be a normal training day, but when Ettin showed up I could tell from the glint in his eye there was some thing special in store. He never looked quite that happy without something up his sleeve.

"Come along Ray. We got a little field trip to take today." He said it with such palpable glee I was a bit worried.

"Should I update my last will and testament ?" I asked with as little snark as I could manage.

"Only if you plan on acting like an idiot, and I don't expect that from a sharp guy like you."

"How comforting." I still managed to keep most of the snark out of my voice, but not as much as I would have liked.

"Today we're going to take advantage of the fact that, outside of high level DVA officials, you don't exist. You're coming on patrol with me." He still had that glint in his eyes, but at least now I knew why.

"I thought I wasn't allowed to be involved in hero work without my license ?" I said it mostly out of formality, since this much time out of the life had made me slightly stir crazy.

"Oh, you're not coming to do hero work, you're coming to watch a semi-famous hero, since you're such a super fan. Publicly I am off line, and this is just a PR move. You were the lucky winner of a private online raffle, that won you a day with your favorite hero. I have to say, I am flattered that you voted so many times, just for a day with little old me. Sorry to disappoint you, but I prefer the ladies in my off hours, if you know what I mean." Ettin spoke with such mirth that I knew he had been planning on this little speel for some time now.

"Now now Ettin, you know I wouldn't hurt Penny like that. Not to mention that Claire would have my testicles tacked to a wall if I ever hurt her best friend. But if we ever break up, I'll keep you in mind." I winked as I said that last part, just to add some spice. Upon mention of Claire though Ettin flinched a little bit.

"That is one little girl you would not want to piss off. I hear she has some skills, and she seems like the type to have a vengeful streak. Best to leave any extracurriculars off the table, if you catch my meaning." Ettin started to turn away towards the door at that, and I followed him.

We soon came onto Mr. Transport, standing in the foyer, and with a nod we were back in Brewster, and Mr. Transport was gone, off without a word. I wondered what that man did in his day job , but I knew better than to ask questions that would not only deny me answers, but possibly piss off the very people who were protecting me.

Ettin started walking down a semi-metropolitan street, bat in hand, waving occasionally, and generally making a show of things. He seemed to be playing up the fact that we were _supposed_ to be seen, and I did my best to play the awestruck fanboy, following close behind, with a stupid look on my face. Whenever Ettin made some small talk around civilians I just gave one or two word answers, and generally tried to play up the "I spent way to much time trying to get this, and now I am finally here, and I don't know what to do" angle.

We did our rounds quickly, but not trying to jostle the other pedestrians. We had stayed away from downtown, so it was busy, but not too crowded. Lots of mid-level office building, shops, and sometimes a road that led down to a row of houses that were no doubt very pricey.

Occasionally I got a hint of the super-powered lives that intertwined with the mundane here, though not nearly as strongly as I had in LA. I saw a woman with wings flying above us, satchel around her shoulders, and what looked like a courier uniform on. I caught sight of a man leaking light off his skin, walking into a boutique clothing shop. Another man who seemed to be carrying a crate that was far too heavy for his frame walked from a truck into the back of a store, never tripping up, or even seeming weighed down by his load.

It was a weird reminder of home, but it was also so different, somehow more mundane and orderly that it made me miss LA, just a bit. That feeling left when I remembered the things, and people, I had been lucky enough to leave behind. This world may not have the magic of home( literally and figuratively), but it had Penny and Claire, and for me, that was more than enough.

As we got into a lower class area, and people thinned out Ettin cut out the bullshit small talk, and started giving me the rundown. He pointed out the people who seemed to be malformed, or just the slightest bit inhuman. There was a man with a tail, poking from a hole in his blue jeans, another who was covered in fur, and a woman who seemed to float up and down, bobbing without cause or meaning. I knew from mine and Claire's research that these were likely powereds, and while a cure was on the way, these people still had to live out their lives until it was ready.

I knew that some hated these people, and I knew that some pitied them. I also knew that Ettin used to be one of them, so I kept my mouth shut about any pity I may have felt. I had lived with people pitying me for my station in life long enough to know that pity, no matter how well meant, was shit to those who received it. The only real help was action.

We kept walking, into progressively worse off neighborhoods. I did not really fear for myself, due to my own power, and to the fact that I was in the company of a powerful protector.

Of course it was likely that level of apathy that let my attention slip away from my environment. Ever since Penny had made my powers my senses had been getting stronger. It started off small, just no longer needing my glasses, hearing was a bit better, all that. Over the years my senses had grown continuously, slowly getting better and better. They usually acted as a sort of early warning system, but only if I bothered to pay attention. I had not bothered to keep them on alert, since this was supposed to be nothing more than a simple walk. That had been a mistake.

Three men jumped from a blind alley, right as Ettin and I passed by. Immediately Ettin yelled "Ray, get covered, and stay out of my way!"

I, of course, did that. I had not intention of going to jail, not when Ettin had proven to me time and again he could take care of himself, far better than even I could.

I leaped over the heads of the three poor saps that thought to attack my friend, and clasped a rather rickety fire escape hanging off a rundown apartment building. I flipped over and onto it, staying where I could watch the show, but far enough away that Ettin would hopefully not chew me out later on.

The three surrounded him, and in seconds the street had cleared of the few people that had been sitting on porches, and walking the sidewalks. People here were not nearly as jaded as they were back home, and they cleared out when something was about to go down.

They started growling, and almost at once one man leaped onto Ettin's shoulders, one grabbed his legs, and the one in front of him took a swing at his gut. These three were obviously not the smartest of the bunch. I knew from personal experience that when you had a strength fighter on your hands you wanted to stay mobile, and more importantly, out of his or her reach. Why this was the best strategy became evident in short order.

As soon as the one who had jumped onto his shoulders had clasped onto Ettin he turned to what seemed to be rock, gray and rough. While I was sure that this shift had added a lot of weight to the criminal, Ettin didn't even seem to notice the difference. The one who had stayed standing made his punch, and it glanced off Ettin's chest.

Even from my perch above I could easily hear Ettin growl at that.

"Big mistake, motherfuckers. I'll only give you the pain free option once. Lay down, and you get to stay in one piece. Otherwise I get to have a bit of fun." I could hear that he was deadly serious about that threat, but the criminals seemed to have missed the memo.

The one who had thrown the VERY ineffective punch just laughed at Ettin's ultimatum.

"You fucking heroes always think you're so high and mighty, gracing our little neighborhood with your glory. This should teach a baby like you to stick to the city, and stay off our terf!"

Roy nodded, still seemingly unbothered by the rock man on his back. "Well, I did warn you boys."

With that he seemed to transform from a man into a warrior. I knew he held back while we were sparring, but I never knew how much until now. He grabbed the arm wrapped around his neck, and just broke it off. Like it was a dead twig on a tree. The man it belonged to yoweled in pain, and dropped onto the dummy that had tried to keep Ettin's legs held. While Ettin may not be effected by the weight of the rock transformation, the man below him certainly was. He cried out as rock dude fell from Ettin, and onto his back. With one smooth movement he swung the (still made of rock ) arm at the man who had punched him in the gut, aiming to break or dislocate his arm. He hit, and the rock arm shattered on impact, not making a noticeable impact on the criminal he hit.

"Well now, aren't you just a tough one." Ettin stepped over the disabled criminals below him, and quickly grabbed the arm he had just hit, squeezing hard enough that I could easily hear the bones snapping under his hand.

"Being tough just means I have to hold back a little less, ya know. It really don't do much but annoy me. That ain't good for someone in your position." As he spoke the criminal in his grasp screamed in pain, and Ettin sent a kick into his knee, hard enough that it bent back in the wrong direction.

The man screamed again, and I nearly felt bad. But I had no place to complain. These men were criminals, and had attacked a hero in the streets, with no care for the damage or hurt their fight may cause. This was not the type of area a long, drawn out battle could take place. Here people could be hurt or even killed if a fight got too violent. Ettin had done his job, and as hard as it was to watch I had to be satisfied that he had done it to the best of his ability, making the civilians a priority over men who had put them in danger.

With all three men in no shape to fight Ettin put his finger to his ear, and spoke into an earpiece I hadn't noticed him wearing.

"Dispatch, I got an ambush at the corner of maple and 17th, three attackers, all subdued. No casualties, seem like three strong men types, one that turns himself to rock. Could ya send over a crew to get them taken in?" Roy spoke like he hadn't just taken on a surprise attack by three guys, but I suppose that was what the hero life did to you.

I could barely overhear the words that came back from the earpiece, since it was likely designed to minimize the amount of sound leakage. Nevertheless I could just make it out.

"Understood Ettin. Response and cleanup teams are two and a half minutes out. Do you need backup or containment ?"

"Nah, these three know to stay down." Roy projected that far louder than needed, as a reminder to the three crooks on the ground, all still groaning in pain.

"Understood."

I jumped off my perch, and landed in what I hope was a graceful manner.

"Well, I suppose that is one way to keep a field trip interesting." I grinned at Ettin, and gave him my best innocent expression.

"Ray, you make understatement an art."

Penny

I finally came back into my own head, just in time to hear the last of my maniacal laugh. Of course, my first impression had to be the crazy mad scientist look.

I turned over too look at Will, and to apologize for the crazy I had just spilled all over his lab, er, house.

"Sorry about that, my power goes a bit overboard on the mad scientist thing some days. I hope the mess isn't to bad this time." I gave my apology to a shell shocked Will.

"I must admit, that was impressive. You're power must add some dexterity and strength. I have never seen anyone move like that, and I have seen quite a lot in my career. Now, what did you make? "Will spoke with respect, which was a nice reminder of how fun my power was to work with.

"My dad theorized that the physical enhancements come and go along with my power, since when I work in my normal state I only have base human dexterity. As for what I built, that I don't really know . My power is strong, and can build most anything, but a side effect is that I loose a lot of the specifics on how my toys work. I kinda have to coax it out with an idea, and it goes with that, but sometimes in really odd ways. One time I wanted an air conditioner for the lab, but my power made a cannon that shot cooled air. It worked like what I asked for, but it also acted as a weapon." At this point in my career I had gotten pretty used to explained how my power worked, and also gotten used to the standard reactions.

Will did not give one of those standard reactions.

"Fascinating. I wonder if any other physical effects come about from the use of your power. Have you ever demonstrated any signs of super-strength or enhanced durability?" He was genuinely curious, and that was a nice change. Most people just got freaked out, or went down the "OMG so KoOl" road.

"Not that I know of. I still have to use tools, and I remember getting some small burns and injuries while working, but nothing too serious. I have to say, you're taking this quite well."

"I have been around long enough to see a lot of odd things. A power induced trance is odd, but it does not really break my top 20 . "He walked over to the bench I was working off of, and picked up my new toy. It looked like I had attached it to my protective suit, so it was likely a modification or upgrade. Oddly it seemed to have fallen into the clockwork half of my power.

I looked over his shoulder, trying to get my power to shoot me a hint of what I had built. It looked like a set of football shoulder pads, but that was not really an indicator of what it did.

"Let me put it on real quick. I think it may connect to the virtual interface built into the helmet screen." I grabbed the suit, now quite a bit heavier, and started putting it on. I loved this thing, and my power seemed to like inventing upgrades for it. It had even made Brenda for me, which was another favorite of mine.

Brenda was an AI that controlled my suits systems, and could act as a targeting and defense system when I was occupied. Somehow she could talk with Vera, and they worked as a coordinated defense, with the suits long range weapons firing around Vera, who worked both short and long range, plus electronic distraction and jamming. All in all they seemed to get along well, which was good, since my power had made them both powerful, and two fighting AIs would be a big pain to deal with.

I finished slipping my suit on, Will watching in fascination as the shoulder pads parted to let me in, and then they closed right back up. Once I got inside I woke Brenda up, and started going through my systems list. I still had no clue why my power write all my instructions in Russian, but I had gotten to a passable state reading the language.

"I found it!" I bellowed out to Will. "It says Uh, shocky thing. Great. I think I read that right. Do you have a good place to test this? I don't want to do any "shocky thing" inside of you apartment."

"What do you mean reading that right ? And yes, I have a good place I use to test my own inventions sometimes. We can get there quickly via car."

"My power sometimes writes instructions, but she only writes in Russian. I think she just does it as a prank, but I have gotten to a passable level of Russian. I just don t want to stake your equipment on my understanding of the language. Let's hit your testing site. I think I have a good substitute for the car though..." I tried to keep my excitement out of my voice, but I failed entirely. I just have WAY to much fun testing out my new toys. My superpower is sooo cool.

Penny

We flew along on my light bike, Will clutching onto my suit. He was holding up surprisingly well. Maybe not so surprising, since I was pretty much positive he was a hero.

We got to the location, Brenda guiding the bike along, leaving me to just hold on, and enjoy the ride.

The location in question was relatively close, but still secluded. It seemed to be nothing more than an empty field, but the holes and pock marks proved that someone had been using it. Will jumped off the bike, and headed towards the area with the most damage.

"Come over here, I think this will amuse you!"

I ran over, excited to see what new toy he was going to bring out. He pulled out what looked like a cars keyfob, but covered in duck tape, and obviously with extra parts shoved inside. He pushed a button twice, and suddenly targets popped out of the ground, and began to move. Some were slow, like the person walking their dog, and some moved faster than I could sprint. They were all made of what looked like card board, and moved over the ground using some means that I couldn't puzzle out.

"This is my practice range, where I train and test new weapons and designs. Unlike your power I have to do quite a bit of testing and modification to my devices to get them to the level I need. This is where that happens, and I believe it will meet your needs as well." He spoke with a familiar pride, something that seemed to span dimensions. Mad scientists would always be proud of their toys

"Crimminey ! "I gave up on hiding my excitement. This was just to cool! "This place is amazing! And I don't have to worry about someone getting hurt if I misguess what a new toy does!"

I activated the new option on Brenda's menu, and I felt two pops on my shoulders. Swiveling my head awkwardly in the suit I saw what looked like turrets, though admittedly made of spinning gears, and OH Crud! Was that Aether!? I looked harder, and I was almost certain it was. Back on Jupiter colonies I was exposed to a new energy, called Aether, but I had never gotten around to figuring it out. It seemed my power had decided it was time to get on that.

"Brenda, activate targeting systems. I want to give this baby a go!" I was nearly giddy. OK, I was totally giddy. I had a new toy, and my power had gotten a new fascination! This was SO much better than the bomb phase a few years back.

"OK Brenda, lets do the guy with the machete, and the woman holding the pistol. Shoot for the legs please." I found it was easier to let Brenda handle the first few rounds of testing, and then I could take what I learned there, and use it myself.

Will stood to my side, watching me with the same fascination I had when my dad worked.

Brenda was not one to disappoint. Make nasty comments on my heads up display, yes, but she never failed when it came to weapons. The turrets began to vibrate slightly, and suddenly there was a brief flash, and two tiny blue disks of light shot out in different directions, and a leg exploded off each target I had requested.

"OH YEAH!" I yelled, with maybe just a touch to much glee in my voice.

"Very impressive I have to ask, who is Brenda?" Will sounded impressed, and I could not be happier. He was the only other mad scientist I had met so far, and I wanted to be sure to make a name for myself.

"Brenda is my suits AI. She can handle my targeting systems, and has a defense mode, but those take up a lot of processing power, so I like to handle my own fights. I just had her give the cannons a go since she seems to be able to interface with my inventions, even when I don't really get know what they do. Now that I know what these babies can do, and have an idea of their power I can shoot them myself, and only rely on Brenda if I'm occupied with another task."

Will looked shocked. I had driven here on a bike made of solid light, and nothing. Mention Brenda, and he looks shocked?

"What? I know I blew their legs off, but it's just cardboard."

"What!? No, just, AI is not possible. Or, it wasn't . No one has ever created an AI successfully! How did you do it? How can you prove that it is AI, and not just a program? What does the AI's personality have to do with performance, and can it interfere in battle? I need to look at this Brenda !"

From there on the day kinda devolved into Brenda making fun of things, and Will having a heart attack.

Claire

Nick had delivered on his end of the deal. He had Will working with Penny, Ettin helping train Ray, and Alice was working with me. I still kept up with him, but he had a life. Several, actually. It was almost impressive. I only had to keep up with two lives, but he had three going at any given time, plus other characters to pick up when needed. I had to admit, when it came to the social aspect of our work he had me beat. I have skills, don't misunderstand, but that man put me to shame. Thankfully I was a MUCH better burglar than him, so I at least got to hold that over his head.

We had fun times, and I learned a lot. I had depended on my power when it came to the human aspect of sneak work, but he helped me learn that there are other ways. Alice was less than thrilled, to say the least. That was a stare off for the ages. I had heard stories about Legionnaire winning a battle by staying awake through a 30 hour staring contest, but I never thought I would be able to see a live reenactment of the event.

I suppose not all would consider seeing how many business cards for a popular strip club you could plant in old white ladies purses would be a fun outing, but for us sneaks it is the height of good time living. The trip where we convinced people to sign a petition for the most endangered species of pigeon in New York was a good opportunity to learn some social manipulation skills, and helping Nick on his political campaign( doing opposition research, of course) was always a good time. I had kept up with my workouts( Nick promised that there was no way to be TOO in shape for the HCP) and I made sure that Penny got out of the house to exercise with me, even though her power was mostly mental. I had gotten a lot of good information off Nick, so there was no way my best friend was going to go down to the first round of cuts due to not getting enough exercise.

Ray on the other hand was getting a good workout on the daily. I was so happy to see that boy finally be in a good relationship with an adult other than Penny or our parents. I knew he had been through a lot, more than even Penny understood. He never knew, but I worked a bit behind the scenes, slowing down his parents, and helping Brian get him emancipated. I didn't want to over step my bounds, but I also wasn't willing to see one of my friends hurt by his own family.

Now that we all had our training going full blast there was only one more big thing on my agenda. Any professional, hero or villain, knew that one of the most important things to have was a place to lay low. The IM had been bunking at our friends houses and apartments, but that was just not sustainable. These were people that had lives and families, and we couldn't just take over their space. I needed to find us a hide out. Thankfully Nick was a person with some, creative real estate connections, let us say. I brought it up to him over an afternoon of opposition research, which amounted to spying on some low level politician while he cheated on his poor wife.

"You really want a lair?" Nick said with a mix of amusement and possibly surprise in his voice.

"Come on Nick. You know that the three of us can't keep living with other people, and Penny needs a space for her work. Ray needs a place to train and workout, and I could use a good place to set up a network command center."

He nodded while looking through a camera lens into a hotel room. We were perched atop the roof of another hotel, with an ideal vantage point for staring into the top floor rooms.

"I agree that Penny needs a good workshop, but you three don't have to get your own places yet. Once you start the HCP there will be dorms for you all, and summer accommodations will be easy enough to come up with." He continued to stare through the lens, never taking his eyes off his target.

"It's not just about having a place to sleep, it's about us having a home again. Ray is doing really well with Sally, but the rest of us are more adjusted to living alone, and part of that is having our own space. We need a home base, a safe place to hide, and our lairs have always been that place." I kept my voice to a reasonable level, which was not easy considering the winds atop the buildings roof.

"I get it. I can do some looking for a place to pick up on the cheap. Penny will most likely have to bankroll the place though, since the stipend I pay you won't be near enough to buy a piece of land outright." He continued to speak while spying, snapping a photo of something I couldn't see without my own equipment.

"I know, and I'm fine with that. Penny has always been our leader, and I trust her with my life, much less something as trivial as the title to our base."

"Ok then. I'll send some possible places for you to look over, and then send to Penny for farther investigation."

"Thanks Nick. I know you don't take favors lightly." I kept my voice neutral, but I knew that there would likely be a price to pay for the work I was asking of him.

"You're right. I don't. But I have just the idea for how you can re-pay me..."

Penny

Will had been having a nerdgasm over my babies. I still hadn't shown him all my toys, but the ones he had gotten to see had caused quite the stir. I loved getting to show off a bit, and this scratched that itch beautifully. Brenda was still a favorite of his, and she was growing to like him too. Not as much as Ray and Claire, but she _had_ stopped insulting his hair on a regular basis, so it was getting better. The teleport rings were something else he had lost it over. I was so proud! Crimminey, getting to impress another mad scientist was a wonderful feeling.

I loved my job too! I had known back in my villain days that I could make good money working for a legitimate company, or on my own, but this was a new deal for me. I never even felt bad, since I was still getting to help people! I hated not being on the streets, patrolling, and stopping criminals, but this was a nice substitute for that. I had been saving my contract money, since Will had insisted on continuing to house me. I was flattered, but I knew I needed to get my own place soon.

That made Claire's call about a potential base all the more exciting. I was thrilled just thinking about getting my own lab again, and making myself some cool new tools. I hated not having all my old toys, but the best part of being a mad scientist was building new ones.

Claire had picked up Ray from Sally's house, and shown up on Will's front door grasping the hand of a women in a dark suit. Come to think of it, the outfit looked strangely familiar. It dawned on me that Transport was often wearing that same style and color of suit. I wondered if there was a connection, or if they both just happened looked good in black. I knew that Ray looked _delectable_ in black, so it was possible that it was just a common color choice. But I also knew better than to act like an amateur and start asking personal questions like that.

We all got into a car that Claire had somehow procured, and started heading out of main town Brewster. The trip was longer than I expected, but most of that was because Claire had started obeying traffic laws for no apparent reason. I suppose it was an improvement over the way she usually drove. Her teacher had been Lucifar, so she had an excuse.

Ray and I held hands in the back seat, making up for some of the time spent away. We still saw each other weekly, at least, but it was a far cry from when we nearly lived together in the lair back home. I missed those times, but I knew that this was just another season for us to make it through. Our relationship had made it through space travel, mind control, homicidal toasters, and even a psychic bunny invasion. We could make it through a few weeks of long distance living.

Once we got to the location Claire had apparently been aiming for I was slightly amused. I knew bases were usually hidden, but this was extreme. We all stood in a field, dirt road the only apparent way in or out, next to a natural gorge that had somehow lost the river that created it. There wasn't another person in sight, much less an obvious entrance to our new base.

"Come on guys! It's down here!" Claire had affected her usual off work persona of a "basic white girl", complete with a Starbucks obsession.

She skipped along, making good use of her above average strength and agility.

"May I assist my dark lady?" Ray asked, causing me to flash back to our old days together.

"Of course, my adorable minion. Take me down to the pit!" I grinned as my boyfriend lifted me with no effort at all, and jumped down after Claire,directly into the gorge.

Once down in the stone chasm I saw the signs of a security system that had been long ago destroyed. I would just have to make a new one, if we decided to buy the place. We headed along a surprisingly easy path, until we got to a large flat stone that I assumed was the door.

"Claire, did your contact give you a way INTO the base, or just the location?" I asked, knowing that my friend was smart enough to have thought _much_ farther ahead than that.

"But of course!"She giggled out.

She pulled out a garage door opener, or something that had the same look as one. She clicked the big button once, and the door flew up with no hesitation.

"Impressive!" Ray growled. Well, maybe he didn't growl, but I liked it he growled, so I kinda inserted that tone of voice into a lot of conversations.

"Let's get going love birds!" Claire skipped forward, with not a care in the world. At least not on the surface. I knew my team, and I knew my friends. She was always thinking, always planning. She just knew how to make people underestimate her.

Ray and I followed, hand in hand, savoring the time we had together until we had to separate again.

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO

Hero name- Impact.

Civilian name- Ariel baker.

Meeting- HCP admission meeting.

Time- 2:17 AM.

Meeting Attendees-

Dean- Ariel Baker

Control Professor- Samantha Jones

Focus professor- Esme Stone

Close Combat Professor- Carl Fletcher

Weapons professor- Sonya Cole

Ranged combat professor- Ramon Simmonds

Subtlety professor- Sean Pendleton

"Could we really not have waited to do this until after we had a few hours of sleep?" Sean complained.

"Sean, you know very well that we are already behind on these, and the explosion in the SIM storage unit did nothing to help our time table."Ariel Baker, the new dean of the Lander HCP, and the hero known as Impact, stood at the head of a table full clearly tired professors. The explosion had been unfortunate, but these things did happen when testing new types of equipment. And it was far better for an accident to happen to a group of highly trained professors, rather than the students.

"I know Ariel, but I can still bitch about it. That is my only useful skill, to be honest."

"Sean, shut up already." The normally stoic Ramon was wearing thin. Even after years as a hero, the prospect of not sleeping for 40 hours straight put him in a bad mood. Add to that the fact that this process had not gotten easy for the new professor, and his annoyance was slipping through.

Esme cut in, acting as the de facto adult in any given situation. "Both of you be quite. The faster we get this done the faster we all sleep. What do you have for us Dean?"

Ariel motioned to a huge stack of folders, and Esme easily sent one section to each professor.

"These are the students that have made it through all the selection processes so far. Tonight we need to deal with the final admissions, so they can be sent to the freshmen we accept. Everyone grab the top folder, and let's dive into it."

This method was slightly different from Deans Blaine's, but Ariel was a fan of trying new things.

"Damn. I forgot Overgrowth had family. This is an easy acceptance from me." Carl Fletcher looked around the table as the others scanned the file. One by one they all nodded.

"I agree. This level of power, along with the training she has already received makes her a great candidate. The only thing we need to look into is the psychological aspects of being the niece of an HCP. Dr. Moran will likely be needed to make sure that she stays healthy mentally. That is a lot of expectation for a young girl. "The new control professor, Samantha, chimed in.

The table all nodded, easily making their decision.

The whole table then grabbed the next file off their stacks, and the process began anew.

The final three files were labeled differently.

"These three are a special case in the admissions department." Ariel said to her weary professors. "I would ask that you all read the briefing on the front page, and then we shall discuss their admission."

The professors did as ordered, and Ariel watched as they all went on a silent face journey though the file. She knew how they felt. Even in the hero world these cases were weird.

Sean spoke first. "What the fuck. I almost hope this is a joke."

The others turned to her, all with similar looks on their faces.

"I assure you it is not at all a joke. This is very real, and these are students that _will_ be accepted into an HCP this year. The DVA will see to that. We are the first choice, since we have a history of test cases. Beyond that these three have more than enough power to make it into our normal freshman class. If you would take a moment and look at the rest of the three files contents I think you will agree with my assessment." Ariel kept her voice professional and calm, not giving away the fact that she too was surprised and almost disturbed by the concept of other worlds.

"The first one would likely fall into my department, with a psychic based power." Esme was the first to speak, the others still making their way through the files.

"Normally, yes. But if you look under her skill assessment you can see that she will most likely fall into the subtlety category. She comes highly recommended from some one in that field, and that's after only a few months on this earth."

Sean switched folders, obviously interested in the subject at hand." Damn. That is impressive. I don't know of another power quite like that one. And her skills are spoken highly of."

Carl spoke next. "I agree with Sean on this. That could be very useful both in battle and in the subtlety field. If she proves to be as skilled as these assessments claim."

"Is no one going to bring up the girl who somehow broke the AI barrier, and created dozens of other inventions that cannot be explained by even our best tech supers?" Sonya said in her usual uninterested tone.

"We're going to cover them all, Sonya, but yes, she is very impressive. She also has combat experience, which is even more impressive for tech supers."

Carl spoke again, this time in a more worried voice. "It says that these three were active heroes on their earth from age 13. I worry that they may be too violent for the HCP, or they may have some trauma lingering from that. This life is hard for fully trained adults. I can't imagine what it would be like for children being shoved into that."

"I agree with Carl on both points." Esme said.

"Those are valid concerns, and we will be able to have them thoroughly vetted before letting them fight other students. The issue is that these WILL be students in the HCP come next year. The DVA has made that clear to me. I propose that we look at them as the strong candidates they are, and try and work with their past, rather than let them go to a different school."

"She may be right on that count." Ramon spoke, voice still with a bit of edge, despite the full pot of coffee he had consumed during the meeting. "These are strong kids, and they have training coming into the program, something that most students lack. We can either take them on, and train them to the best of our abilities, or we can let them go to a different school. I say we take them on."

"Why not both". Esme said. "We could vet them pre-admission, and judge them on that. If they cannot keep their powers in control, or if they get too violent, then we have basis for blocking their admission. If they perform well then we get three excellent candidates."

Ariel looked around the room, checking the faces of the other professors. One stuck out, the ever sarcastic Sean Pendleton.

"Sean, do you have something to get off your chest?"

"Yes. Your drinking has affected me in the following ways..."

Groans flew from the other professors, and Sean grinned.

"I am concerned about the tech super, Penny. She seems to have a set of control issues all her own. The files mention some of her creations, but no one has mentioned the fact that she seems to border the powered/super line. How can we make sure she is dependable if she is not sure exactly what she is creating?" Sean did not speak with any distaste towards powereds, for many reasons, not the least of which was having a powered sister and formerly powered niece.

Ariel nodded from the head of the table, showing more patience than any human or super should be able to manage in the face of Sean Pendleton.

"I had the same concern, and the way her supervisor explained it was that she has the ability to coax out her superpower, which then does the actual building. He suspects it is a transformation ability of some sort, but we have not gotten the evidence to back that. She can shut down any idea or tool she deems too dangerous, and has a measure of control over what her power decides to create. I think she has the control to be admitted, and then from there her control will only grow with proper training. "

Sean nodded. "Good enough for me. I may not be a tech based super, but I know a good deal about what they can do. She is impressive, honestly beyond what I have seen anywhere else. She also seems to be able to put her tools and weapons to excellent use. I look forward to training her."

"Then we are agreed. We will test the students for admission, and decide after the on their status." Ariel looked relieved as she made her announcement, and she was happy to finally get some sleep, a sentiment that was clearly echoed around the room.

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 **Authors note**

 **Hello all. I figured I should go over a few things before we go any farther in the story. First of all is that I love to mess with canon. There are some things I really just want to change, so I do. In this story I am going to change relatively few things. I don't want to reveal them all here, but there are a few changes.**

 **This is a crossover story, but FF.N does not have the option for the superpowereds world. There is some very good SP fanfic on the SP website, I recommend you check it out if you like original story.**

 **For those of you who are not familiar with the SP world, it is pretty amazing. Drew Hayes is the author of the series, and two spinoffs, all of which are great. The basis of the world is that there are two groups of superpowered people, supers and powereds. The supers have control, while the powereds are not able to harness their powers. Over the course of the original series a cure was found for powereds, and it lets them become supers. This story is based about a year after the end of book four of the SP series, and it follows the IM crew through learning about this new world. We get to meet up with the Melbrook crew, and meet some new peeps along the way.**

 **Please let me know if you spot a typo, punctuation mistake, or if you just hate me and everything I have ever written.**


	3. Chapter 3

Penny

Ray, Claire, and I had bought the lair. Apparently it had been used by an evil supercomputer a while back, and now that they had removed it the place was just empty. It used to be a mining project, so we had plenty of room to work in. We started by cleaning up. Months of disuse had left the whole place a dust bin, and we spent days just getting that taken care of. After that I had the machine eat and recycle the furniture we weren't going to use, and then repairing the walkways and walls that had been damaged. It was a big project, but we were a good team for it, and we all enjoyed the time back together. We had grown into a family over the years, and it felt right to be together.

I felt _almost_ no surprise when Nick showed up on that Oh So Fateful day. He had been over a few times before, Him and Claire bonding, and no doubt doing things that I would find morally questionable behind my back.

"Claire!" Nick Yelled from the lair entrance passage. " I have some good news for you three !"

" Oh goody! What did Santa bring this year ?!"Claire was in her " Cute and Harmless " character mode again.

"You three have an interview at the Lander HCP program. Their the most prestigious HCP in the country, though to be fair the others are just as good behind the scenes. "

Ray walked up from one of the back rooms or passages. " What is this good news I'm hearing about?"

"We have an interview for Lander!" Claire squealed.

"Really? I thought they were supposed to be the toughest to get into ? " Ray said.

" They are, but they also have a reputation for being successful with test cases, which you three are. You are unique, even for our world. They likely thought you had the best chance of success there. "Nick sounded professional as always, but that was not a surprise.

" Let's not get to excited you two. This is just an interview, and they may reject us yet. We just have to see where it goes. " I did my best not to stamp on their joy, but I also did not want to get their hopes up.

"Penny is right, it is just an interview, but it is a positive sign that they are considering you at all. " Nick remarked.

Claire looked as giddy as always. " What do the interviews usually go over? "

"Well, that was the second thing I needed to tell you three. interview may not be the best way of putting it"

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Hero name- Impact. Civilian name- Ariel baker. Meeting- HCP admission meeting.

Time – 2:17 AM. Meeting Attendees- Dean Ariel Baker

Control Professor- Samantha Jones

Focus professor- Esme Stone

Close Combat Professor- Carl Fletcher

Weapons professor- Sonya Cole

Ranged combat professor- Ramon Simmonds

Subtlety professor- Sean Pendleton

"Well Jessica was an easy yes. Who do we have next" Sean said in his usual semi-bored tone.

" Sam Thomas. Mid level strongman, seems to have good growth potential. No training to speak of, which makes the level he's at more impressive. " Ariel spoke with a professional, if tired tone.

The assembled professors looked over their files, and eventually Carl broke the silence. " Well, he has potential, but he'll need to train like a beast to make it out. I'll give him a chance. "

The others nodded, to tired to make much fuss over a rather standard freshmen.

"Next up, Bradley Taylor. No relation to Chad. Seems to have decent potential as a pyrokinetic. No training at all, which with his gift makes him far more dangerous. Sam, he'll likely fall on you, what do you think? " Ariel continued to lead the meeting, moving as quickly as she could.

" His stats are impressive. He may be great, with training. I do have to say that I'll boot his ass if he can't learn without endangering other students. "Samantha spoke with the confidence you expect of a seasoned hero.

"I would expect nothing less from my professors. " Ariel agreed.

" With that said I think we can take him on. He may be able to pull it off, he has the sheer power for it. " Samantha returned.

" Our next contestant is*drum roll* Michael !" Sean said while opening the next file off his stack.

" Leave it to Sean to somehow make this meeting more annoying than it already was. " Ramon grumbled.

Ignoring Ramon Sean continued to speak. " I think we've got a good one here. I've only known one other remote viewer, and she wasn't as good as this kid. Did the DVA brats ever get a classification on his power? "

"They did not, he is currently a class to himself. I must admit, he seems to have a strong gift, but subtlety is something that relies on more than just your power. He would have to make it through the rest of the course materiel to graduate, no matter how strong his ability is." Esme spoke this time, reminding the tired heroes around the table that she did, in fact, exist.

" I agree with Esme. " Ariel said. "He does seem to have a bit of training from his parents, but nothing that would get him into the program by itself. However, the potential is there, so I am in favor. Any objections?

The room stayed quiet. This was how it went most years. The DVA would weed out the obvious rejects, and then Ariel( or the acting Dean) would make another pass through. By the time the files got to the professors they were just looking for smaller details that would bar them from entry. Besides, it was really the freshman Hell Semester that was the true admission test. That was where the weak and unmotivated were weeded out from the strong. This was just picking out few that may have been missed.

"Alright. We will admit . Our next candidate is Judah Spencer. "

"A multi-species shiftier is always welcome in my focus class. If he can learn to harness his power he may be able to graduate. I would be happy to train him. The file does say that he only recently emerged. May I ask what caused such a late power bloom? " Esme asked, looking to Ariel, who had already studied the files in depth.

" He seems to have taken a fall, and transformed mid fall into a crow. Very rare for a power to lie dormant for all of that time, but he has control over his shifts, and it seems to have just been a fluke. " Ariel replied.

" The files say his shifts are significantly larger than their normal counter parts. Does he control that, or is it involuntary? " Carl asked the room.

"Involuntary. He may be able to change that, but for now all of his forms seem to be larger and stronger than their real counterparts. While a benefit in combat, it make some of his stealth options much harder to pursue. " Ariel said in response to Carl's question.

" Focus may be a good choice, but he may also do well in my class. A suped up elephant or bear could be a real threat. " Carl sounded genuinely interested, much to the chagrin of Esme.

"I still think Focus would suit him best, but we shall see. I say we take him into the freshman fold. " Esme said, glaring at Carl.

" I see that Carl is still trying to poach our candidates." Sean muttered, stirring the pot. "I'm still not happy about loosing Transmute's kid to the combat brigade. She had potential. "

Samantha rolled her eyes at that remark. " She is doing well in combat, and you know better than anyone that subtlety has a reputation. "

"For good reason too. " Ramon growled.

"Moving on. " Ariel said, cutting off the potential argument. " We got a nulifier this year that has some real potential. I think she would likely fall to you, Carl, so if you would be so kind as to look her file over? "

Carl did so, and the rest of the staff with him.

" Power dependence is a real problem for supers, but nulifiers often fall into the trap of thinking they don't have to worry about powers. Her gift is strong, if a bit limited, since it requires physical contact. Her biggest issue is going to be learning to think and fight, without falling into traps common to her lot. "

"I agree." Said Ramon, looking mildly interested for the first time in hours. " Nulls are a rare type of super, but they are their own worst enemy. I say we give her a chance to prove herself. "

" I'll give her a try, if you all don't have any issues ?" Carl said to the assembled heroes.

They all nodded and muttered agreements.

Sonya sent one of her tendrils out to grab the next file. " It looks like we have one for you Ramon. Blaster type, right up your alley."

Ramon, still looking the file over, nodded. " Possibly. He seems to have some good potential, but all of the candidates who make it this far have potential. I will take him if he can make it past the freshman trial. "

Ariel nodded. " I agree with your assessment, but keep a close eye on him. His shots have a lot of damage potential, and I don't want others caught in his crossfire. He has no formal training, so he is more likely to need watching."

"That's always true." Sonya muttered. " We got a surprisingly strong line of legacies this year, but most of our freshmen are untrained, and all the more likely to hurt someone. "

This was slated to be a strong class. The danger and excitement from Lander's Crucible still drew in the more danger seeking students, and it had a bigger effect on legacies looking to get the best training they could.

The night continued on, former heroes deciding the fates of hero hopefuls.

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"They want us to do what?!"I bellowed at Nick.

"They need to see that you three are still sane enough to be around students, and become heroes. You have to understand most people have issues after hero work, and you got into it much younger than anyone ever should. All you have to do is fight some robots, and prove you can keep your heads on straight. " Nick was as professional as always, not that that stopped me from wanting to clock him( insert superpower related pun) for this " Interview ".

"I get wanting to test us, but fighting robots with superpowers is a bit extreme for a school entrance exam ! " I was still a bit loud, but excuse me for not wanting to go fight robots at the crack of dawn.

"Penny, I'm sure that they have backup plans in place to prevent us from getting to hurt, or doing to much damage. This is an entire school for heroes were talking about. " Ray was calm, and that had always had a calming effect on me.

"Plus, this could be fun. Remember the robot virus back in school? " Claire said the words " robot virus" WAY to lightly for my tastes.

"I guess so. But I still think it's a bit much just for an entrance test. " I gave up the little fight I had left, preferring to just get it over with."Can you at least give me something to go off of? What can these robots do? "

"The're meant to emulate superpowered criminals. They can imitate all sorts of powers, and can have different levels of damage resistance, just like supers do. You're job is to defeat them, while not registering ""Kills"" on their systems. " Nick explained in a detached manner that STILL made me want to punch him a little bit.

"Do I get to bring my toys at least?" I growled

"Of course. The staff wants to test you, and what you do best is build gadgets. They need to see you at your full power, or the test is worthless. "

"I assume my powers will still work then? " Claire asked airily.

"Yes. You're not the first student with mental powers. They are built to respond just like a human would. "

"Well" I mumbled " I guess if we have to, then we do it well. Lets start making a game plan.

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I took stock of my toys. I had my teleport bracers, Vera, Brenda, my suit and light bike, the new aether blasters, the hover disks, the built in night-night gun, and of course, my machine. Claire had her usual setup, and I had given Ray an extendable baton, just in case he needed a boost. I had no idea just how strong these robots would be, but I knew we would be prepared for as much as we could.

We were standing in the "foyer" of our lair. Can a lair even have a foyer? I don't know, but oh well. We were in the entrance of the lair. Today was the day of our interview, or better known as the day a group of crazies forced us to fight superpowered robots to see if we could go to their school. I was still a little peeved about that.

We had gone over our plans, tools, and backup plans a dozen times. It was pretty similar to our normal plan, but I wanted to show off our best work today. Claire was on crowd control, I was ranged support, and Ray would be taking them down in close quarters. I loved watching my boyfriend fight. He moved and flipped like a dancer, but he had the power to make his blows hurts. I pitied the poor robots that had to go against him, and not me or Claire.

Suddenly a suited man appeared, dressed closely to 's day to day look. I still suspected that had work in the hero world, but he never brought it up, and none of the other people I talked to had mentioned what he did. The dark suited man stepped forward, and held out his hands. We knew the drill by now, and Claire, Ray and I stepped forward and grabbed onto him. There was a flash of smoke, and what smelled like sulfur, and then we were all atanding in what looked like the nicest gym on earth. It was huge, and had everything you could ask for. I saw climbing walls, weights, obstacle courses, and a pool. What I did NOT see were any windows, which was odd.

In front of us stood a group of men and women, all wearing grey masks, that seemed to be padded to help disguise their faces even more. On was covered in metal, another clothed in so many bandages and cloaks I thought they may have been a mummy. The rest looked normal enough. An older woman, hunched over slightly, looking for all the world like nothing more than an adorable grandma. By my guess she would be one of the most dangerous people here, since that was how superpowers always seemed to work. My mind flashed to Claudia, and I was even more certain that she was not one to be trifled with. Three men stood, clustered together, and they were all buff. Like, had to workout at all times just to stay looking that way buff.

Ray stepped forward, taking on the role of spokesperson. I trusted him to be more subtle than I could, so he usually took these jobs.

" Thank you for having us, all. I am Ray Viles, and behind me are Claire Lutra, and Penny Ack. I understand that we have an interview for admission today. " Ray spoke with confidence, his English accent giving his words even more power and poise.

Another woman spoke at that, coming in silently from behind where we were standing. " Hello. I am the Dean of this HCP, and I will be administering your test, with the assistance of the persons you see before you. Currently you do not have clearance to know my name, or the names of the others here, so I will go by Dean, and the others by Professor. "

She spoke with obvious confidence, but her voice was still gentle. She had no need to be brusque or loud because she, and the others here, all had power dripping off them. I knew that these were teachers that had much to share, and I wanted to learn from them.

Ray continued to act as spokes person. " Thank you for the opportunity Dean. What would you have us to do for this test? "

The Dean spoke, now having joined the professors at the front of the room. " Please follow us to the testing area. Today we will be having you all do some light sparing with what we call SIMs. They are robotic opponents designed to imitate superhuman abilities, and are used for training in the HCP. "

We all walked, following the dean, but with the professors at our backs. I knew it was likely to make sure that no one wandered off, but it still made me a bit uneasy.

The dean continued. " Today you all will be in one of our city simulations, and your job will be to work as a team, stopping a group of rioting SIMs, while protecting the civilian robots stationed around the area. None of these circumstances should require the death of any of your opponents, so we expect you to act as heroes, and not register any "kills" on the SIM systems. Normally we test students alone, but you three are said to have worked together, so we decided that this may be the best way to see your skills."

She finished shortly before we got to an elevator, which opened as we approached. " If you three would step inside this will transport you to your testing ground. "

I looked at my team. Claire had no trace of her "cute and innocent " character. Ray was even more resolute than normal, standing stiff at attention. I nodded, and led the way into the elevator.

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Penny

The elevator had let us off into a back alley, noises coming off from the left. I turned to the IM. " OK. We have a riot situation. I'll be picking them off from the sidelines, Ray, you need to jump in and draw them away form any civies down near the fray. Claire, you have mobility and strength, so you're going to need to carry off anyone stuck in the fray, or any injured. I'm sending Vera to back you up. "

With those orders I grabbed Vera from my suit and activated her. " Protect Claire, and stick with her, but keep your blasts non-lethal. "

She bobbed once, and floated behind to behind Claire. Ray was already making his way towards the commotion. I activated my hover disks, and gave a quick burst, putting me above the alley. I landed on top of the roof, and started running towards the riot. It was only a few roofs over, and once I got there I nearly froze. They had told us that there were robots down there. These were people. They had to be.

" Brenda, I need life signs down there, now !" I yelled, heart racing. I had been in worse situations, but this was not at all what I had expected.

" _No life signs apart from the ever so lusted after Mr. Viles_ " Brenda told me.

I jumped onto the communication line between Ray, Claire, and I. " Guys, these robots are realistic. Like freaky realistic. Brenda confirmed that they **are** all robots, so do what needs to be done. I'll be backing you all up. "

Ray responded almost immediately. " Realistic is an understatement. I have about 8 down here, three seem to be strength fighters, but no clue on the others yet. Claire, what can you see? "

Claire broke into the line, voice steady and serious. " I have one civilian cowering in the corner of a shop door, two behind cars, and one under a truck. I think I just saw one of those bots throw lightning though, so be careful. They're not all brutes. "

"Ok team. You know what to do. "

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"They're tearing those things up." Carl muttered.

"Maybe, but these are set at a very low power level. " Sonya said. " Against a stronger setting they could easily be overwhelmed. "

" I agree, but how many of our freshmen can do as well as they are right now? Maybe a few legacies could hold up to that, but none of the kids we normally start off with. Plus these three are already working as a team, and doing a good job of it. Even our legacies struggle with that. " Carl continued to defend the Im.

Esme stood with them, watching the test closely. " The most impressive part is their teamwork. I'm reading their thoughts, and they all have a solid plan for their actions, and they know what the others are supposed to be doing. These are not the usual green supers we take into the freshman class. They're all smart, and thinking their moves through. That makes them far more dangerous than the average super. "

Ariel spoke next. " I agree. These three have powers that would get them into the HCP, but their minds are by far more dangerous. Thankfully they do seem to have some restraint. I have not marked one kill yet, and Ms. Lutra seems to be doing an excellent job of evacuating the innocents, while letting Mr. Viles do the up close work. "

The professors watched on, impressed with the students below them.

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Penny

My team was doing well. Claire had gotten three of her targets out, Vera taking down a robot that was shooting fire, and Ray was dancing with the other opponents, distracting them from the civies on the ground. I had dropped three myself, the night-night gun doing well against these targets. I knew from experience that the drugs it produced had no real effect on robots, so I assumed that the machines were calibrated to register the shots and shut down like a human body would. One target had managed to take two shots and stay standing. I assumed that meant some type of high endurance, so I switched tactics.

"Brenda, I need to to take down the guy who is tanking my shots. He is to dangerous to stay standing. Keep in non-lethal, but I need him down for the count. "

As soon as I had spoken a red targeting dot appeared on the jerk, and I felt the slight vibration from my aether cannons. In no time at all the dot glowed, and Brenda took the shot, while I was focusing on watching the battlefield. That was a mistake. This guy had already taken two shots, but I assumed the aether cannon would down him. A slight pop, and a shot went straight for the target I had requested. I barely registered the synthesized roar from the strong man, and he turned towards me. Apparently Brenda had made the shot too weak to put him down for the count, but plenty strong to get him riled up.

The strong man turned in my direction, and started running, apparently set on climbing the brick wall to my hiding place. I looked now, realizing that this was an issue. He began to storm my way, and then Claire broke into my audio feed.

"Penny! He is headed straight for a civilian ! Under the red truck! I can't get him!" Claire had been doing a god job, but no one was perfect. I looked down, took a step, and teleported. I knew where she was talking about, and I appeared there in a flash. I reached under the truck, the civilians face looking WAY to realistically terrified for comfort. I grabbed his arm, and stepped back once, appearing across the street on top of a different building. I dropped him there, and teleported back to my original hiding spot. The strongman was still coming, but I was not making a dumb mistake twice.

" Brenda, take him down. I want both legs off, but try not to aim for his vital parts. "I felt a little sick ordering Brenda to take a limb, but these were robots, so I couldn't feel too bad.

She came through for me, and this time the pop was much stronger. It worked too, the robot legs coming off at the knees as a shot to each severed them. I breathed a sigh of relief, then turned back to the fight. It was no longer much of a fight, Ray taking on the last two SIMs at once. I targeted on with the night night gun, and shot him down. Ray flipped, and hit the other in the back if the knee with a strike from his baton.

We were done. Now we just had to see if we had done well enough.

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"That was close." Sonya remarked as Penny grabbed the civilian and teleported them out of danger.

"It could have been closer. Hell, she pulled it off. " Carl said.

" It was close, but so far they have not lost a civilian, which is impressive. Very impressive. " Ariel sounded the same as always, but the professors around her knew that she was not one to give idle complements.

"It was a good save. They have done very well today. " Esme was still focused on the fight, but she was more than capable of holding a conversation and watching the show.

"It looks like Mr. Viles just took down the last one. " Sonya interjected. " I must say, I would like to have a shot at training that one. Maybe even the inventor, if she can learn to fight up close. "

" I agree with Sonya, Viles has potential. He moves with a lot of speed and precision, but he still has power to back it up. I'd like to see him in close combat come next year." Carl said to the group.

" Come next year? I assume that means you approve of his admission ? " Ariel asked the close combat instructor.

" Hell yeah. He has skills, and I want a shot at training him. He proved here that he know how to fight, and he knows better than to cause death with no purpose. " Carl replied.

"There he goes, always trying to poach my students. However I do approve of their admission. They all acted in accordance with hero principles, and I think they will do well. " Sonya said this while glaring at Carl, in what he hoped was a joking manner.

" I also approve."

" I agree with you all. I will check with the others once they are done downstairs, but I suspect that we will be admitting the three of them. " Ariel moved towards the door, and the other professors followed.

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Penny

We made it ! The Professors and the Dean had agreed to let us into the program, and I have to admit I was VERY excited. I had loved learning how to be a hero from my mom and dad, and this was going to be like that, but on steroids. After agreeing to let us into the program they had given us a small tour of the school campus, and they had everything down there. The gym was just the surface. We had gotten to see the obstacle courses, the shooting ranges, classrooms, the whole shebang. Even Claire looked impressed, which was never an easy task.

After a quick once over they had given us a small mountain of paper work each, and we had gotten teleported back to the lair. The paperwork was a new challenge, and it almost made me wish to go back to fighting robots. We had NDAs, release forms, medical releases, and soooooo much more. I had Claire and Nick look it over, but they both assured me it was on the up and up.

Once the paperwork was done things got a bit more interesting. One day Nick had shown up with a willowy man in tow. When I say willowy I don't mean lanky or thin, just _long._ He looked almost haggard, but he still walked with a sure step.

" Penny, Ray, this is professor Pendleton. He will be one of your teachers at Lander this year, and he is here to help lay down your cover stories. " Nick spoke with his usual professional snark.

"Nick! And who is this?! " Squealed Claire, in full cuteness mode, as she came running down the hall.

" As I was saying this is Professor Pendleton. He's here to assist in keeping your origins a secret. " Nick spoke to Claire with just a bit more fondness, I think. I may have been imagining it.

"Hello. I'm Professor Pendleton, and this is sort of my specialty. We've created three backstories for you all, which you will be expected to memorize by the time school starts. Since you three obviously have strong bonds we decided not to try and erase them, but to build them into the covers. " As Sean Pendleton spoke he produced three files, and handed them to Ray, Claire, and Penny in turn.

" Each of you will be folded into existing Hero families, who have agreed to chaperone you all. Ray, you have a pre-existing relationship with the Daniels family, so we used that. You are now the nephew of Sally Daniels, who you are staying with for family reasons. I go into greater depth in the file. Penny, you're being folded into Will's family. And Claire... Congratulations Claire, you are my illegitimate daughter. " He looked over to Claire with a smirk that would have put Nick to shame.

Claire's eyes narrowed for just a second before she squealed out " Daddy! " and ran, and jumped into his arms, grasping his neck.

Hugging onto him tight she said in a low voice" I saw that smirk. Two can play this game." Right before she kissed him on the cheek and jumped down.

Nick looked on in awe, something that I doubted happened often.

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Claire

I _knew_ it had been Nick's idea. It just stank of his sense of humor. Well, I was going to have fun with this, since they had decided to have fun with me.

I put them through it. I think Sean would live to rue the day he had agreed to that plan of Nick's. 67 daddies, 4 kisses, and 17 hugs later I could tell that they had learned their lesson. I set about memorizing my file. Apparently Sean had had a one night stand before he went to prison, and I was the product of that. I just hope no one looked to closely at the numbers, because they had had to fudge my age a bit. Oh well, this was only in place in case some one went snooping. Knowing the company I kept someone would probably go digging, so I got to memorizing.

They had done good work on these papers. I wondered if Eliza had been involved. I was supposed to meet up with Sean today, and I wanted to be caught up on my backstory. Presumably I was reconnecting with my estranged father, and this would be a sort of daddy daughter bonding day. In reality Sean wanted to see what I could do. Nick had filled me in on majors and such. I knew that I would likely be learning under Sean's tutelage for the next four years. I also knew that I had a huge head start compared to most other students, and that meant I would be having slightly more class work, and a very different set of challenges. I'm not complaining though, I was happy to be learning from a master of the craft.

Ray was still training under Ettin, and he seemed to be making good progress. I had gotten Penny to start working out more, and she continued to drill on the practice range, honing her weapons skills. My training though was slightly different. With my paychecks from Nick I had invested in some good quality computer equipment, and was slowly setting my connections back into place. I hated having to start from scratch, but it was a good chance to challenge my self in a new environment. Nick also had me running regular gigs with him, and that was good practice, but nothing compared to running a real operation, with high stakes. What's the point in playing for no stakes?

I finished my work a few minutes before Sean was due to arrive, so I took the remaining time to primp. I may have taken a little longer than necessary, just to screw with him a little. You can't have men thinking you're be easily cowed.

I met Sean out in the entrance hall of the lair.

"Daddy! " I yelled. I may have taught them a lesson, but no need to let them forget it. "Where are you taking your little girl today? "

Sean rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed. " Today Claire I am going to have you do some tailing training. This is actually what I teach my first years, but today were going to change it up a little bit. "

" Oh? Do tell. " I said, dropping the act, and getting my game face on.

" Normally I have the first years try and tail me. Today though, I think I am going to try tailing you. You get a 30 minute head start, plus what ever equipment you can carry on your person. Within reason, that is. " He spoke with a practiced weariness. I knew better than to believe this act, I'd seen it before back home.

"That sounds like a good time. Where did you have in mind? "

"Where else do teenage girls, who are completely normal, and have no other motives, spend their days? The mall. " He managed to keep a reasonably straight face, but I knew he was laughing at me.

" Of course! I assume as my estranged father you will be bankrolling my shopping, correct?" I said with as wicked a glint in my eye as I could manage.

He blanched, slightly, at the thought of paying for my shopping spree. Good, can't let him have all the fun. " I was thinking more window shopping than actual purchases..."

I gave him my best pout, with just a hint of my power. " But daddy! I _love_ shopping..."

His eyes shut immediately. I knew that would only hinder my power, not block it out completely. " Claire, power off. You should know better than to use a mental ability on your professor." He sounded more serious than normal, so I shut it down. No reason to piss him off before we even began classes.

"Fine. But I still want you to take me shopping. I mean, after all these years as an absentee father it's the least you can do. "

Sean groaned. " Get ready. This is still training, and I expect you to be able to perform. "

"OK!" I ran and grabbed my go bag, something that mom had drilled into me from a _very_ young age. It wasn't ideal, but it would suffice for times when you needed to be out quick, or just didn't have time to pack a true kit. Inside was a basic makeup kit, a few bagged wigs, two changes of clothes, lock picks, sun glasses, hats, and a few more... "exotic" items.

"Let's hit the road! " I called to Sean. He looked, well, less than excited. I suspected he was looking forward to it though.

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We arrived at the mall, and Sean dropped me off, ostensibly to park the car, and meet me inside. In reality I was allowed a head start, and this gave us a ready built way to do that, without arousing suspicion. I power walked inside, eager to find a bathroom and get started. I had the option of hiding and trying to play out the time, but I knew that defeated the purpose of the exercise. Plus, it was likely he was skilled enough to find me anyways.

It was easy enough to find a bathroom, my power turned on just enough that no security was going to stop me for having a backpack. Once inside I dropped down in a stall and got to work. First off I wigged up. I loved my blond hair, but it was noticeable AF. I decided on a straight black bob, the exact opposite of my normal look. Next I threw on a light dusting of makeup, just enough to make me look like someone in their 20's, not an 18 year old. Then I changed into my outfit, a basic hoodie and jeans combo that was bulky enough to hide my shape. With that out of the way I slipped on some thick soled shoes, and a pair of glasses. Not my most effective work, but in this sort of situation I could live with it.

I left the bathroom, having stashed the backpack in the drop ceiling. Nothing like doing all that work, and having your stalker spot a familiar bag or accessory. I pulled out my phone, using the camera to check my back every now and then. I almost preferred having to tail a target. When you get to play hunter you have so many options open to you. You can use cameras, security tech, bugs, GPS trackers, and more. When you're the prey you have to do more work. I weaved in and out of the crowds, sometimes going into a store, sometimes just window shopping.

I'd been at it for a few minutes, and knew it was time to switch it up. I swung into a hot topic, and grabbed and oversize t shirt, a beanie, and some sweat pants. I payed, ducked into the fitting booth, and made my change. I sat in the booth for a few minutes. Sometimes you can trip a watcher up by just staying in one place longer than expected. They assume they must have missed you, and start looking away from where you went in, and Boom, you slip out. Sean was probably too good for that, but it never hurt to try out the tried and true tricks.

I made my move, and slipped out the door with a few other customers. Once back into the hustle and bustle of the mall I decided to head for the food court. I still had not made Sean once, and that was concerning. I knew that to be a teacher for sneaks you had to be _good_ , but I expected to have at least seen him once by now. I got to the food court, still no sign of my stalker. I made a beeline for the pretzel maker, and got one with cheese. Everything, even covert operations, are better with cheese.

Still no sign of the professor. I sat down at a table near an anti-theft mirror and tried to read the crowd. It was pointless looking for someone who looked like Sean, he would guard against that. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the tall nerdy guy from the pretzel shop take off his apron and head my way. I groaned internally. I liked being a busty blond, but some days guys were just to much. This happened at least once a week. Some guy would come up to me, hit on me, and then get mad when I wasn't down to go out with him. I kept my eyes on the crowd while he made his way over. No reason to give the Prof an opening just because some dick bag had to flirt.

The dorky guy came and sat down in front of me. I gave him my best " I am to busy and way to out of your league " look. He still settled in across from me.

"Hello there Claire" said the all to familiar voice of Sean Pendleton. I'll admit I did a double take.

"What the hell!? " I gasped. Now that I knew it had to be him I could almost make him out under the glasses, fake acne, and ugly fast food uniform hat.

"Sorry to startle you, but I needed this lesson to make an impact. I'll be blunt with you. You're good Claire, really good. But you're not the best, and that means you're not ready for the hero world. In our line of work we have to be the best of the best, or we're dead. I needed to teach you that before we started classes, or else you likely would have found yourself tempted to ignore my lessons, thinking you were above what I could teach. " He sounded deadly serious, and that was a bit startling. I was used to hearing his usual bored tones.

" I get it. Or at least I think I do. I may have talent and skill but I still have room to grow. " I tried to give off as much honesty as I could, since he was right. I needed to be the best, and obviously there were still many better.

" Exactly. You have natural talent, and a god bit of training, but you're still only 18, trying to move into a world of much more experienced professionals. "

"Thank you for the lesson. Now though, you owe me a shopping trip! " I grinned at him, refusing to let the somber lesson ruin my mall trip

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Ray

When Sean got back to the lair I could tell from the dead look in his eyes that Claire had put him through it. The large amount of bags Claire was lugging in was another give away.

"We went shopping! " Claire yelled.

"We went shopping..." Sean groaned.

"You have my sincerest apologies." I said to Sean. I honestly was sorry, but I did have to stifle a giggle.

Penny came out from her workshop, took one look at Sean and said" She made you shop, didn't she?"

He nodded.

Claire said, with no hint of the malice glinting in her eyes" Well, after years of not showing up to birthdays and Christmases I think it's the least he can do. "

"Claire, be nice to your father. He was... Other wise engaged, and you know it. " I kept my smile at bay, but I did enjoy the joking a bit.

Sean groaned again. " I am going home, and treating myself to a well earned drink. "

With that he turned and walked out of the lair. I looked over at Claire, and she smiled up at me, the picture of innocence.

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Ray

I had been training consistently, preparing for the workouts of the HCP. Both Nick and Ettin had promised that there would be workouts, and that I would likely hate them for encouraging me to go into that line of work. I almost didn't take them seriously, but then I remembered _every_ hero I had seen on this earth, and how _every one_ of them was in freakishly good shape. Not just the hand to hand fighters. _All_ of them. I doubled down on my training then. I had been in great shape ever since I had taken Penny's serum, but I knew from Ettin that I needed to be stronger, much stronger, to graduate. I had to take down people who had more impressive powers, and sometimes more training, and I had to do it while protecting my team, and the innocents around me. So I trained.

I had been spending a good chunk of time with Sally before we got the lair, but I had slacked off on that relationship of late. Today was going to be my last day before we moved to our dorms, so I wanted to see my " family". To be honest I felt like she was my real family, as she had been more loving in the past months than my own parents had ever been. I mentally added her to my family, alongside Penny, and Claire, and Misty, and Brian and Miss Ack. I knew that these people would go to hell for me, and that I would for them. That made them more family than blood ever could.

I had given Mr. Transport a call, and he had agreed to pick me up so that I could say good bye. I had made arrangements for a favorite restaurant of Sally's to deliver a feast for us all tonight, as I felt like a goodbye present was in order. I couldn't repay her, but I could show her that I was grateful.

Mr. Transport appeared, right on time, as usual. I grabbed his outstretched arm, and we disappeared from the lair.

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Penny

Today was going to be my last day at "home " before we moved into our dorms. It was amazing how the lair had become home so quickly. We had done a good bit of work on it, and over that time it had become my new home on this weird version of earth. Ray and Claire seemed to be doing well, but I still craved some time back with my parents and my other friends. I loved Ray and Claire, but I missed my version of earth.

I had been warned to start exercising again. Being an active hero back home meant a lot of training and exercise, but my job here was pretty easy. I had gotten ahold of some good equipment though, and had been putting my time in. I have to say, running on a treadmill is much less fun than running away from a crazed toast monster, and punching a bag was much less fun than punching out a villain. Still, I knew that being in shape was important.

I'd had an idea percolating around in my head for days now, and I wanted to get it built before I left my lab, and was away from all my tools and toys. Ever since we came into this earth my power had been... _different_. I honestly preferred this version. Now I got blue prints, but they were fewer and farther away from each other. The nice part was my new ability to get an idea of what it was,or what it would be. I could live with less inventions, if I knew for certain that what I was making would not end the world as we knew it. This new blue print seemed to be a melee weapon, at staff of some sort. When I looked at it I got flashes of people sliding, but I knew it had to be good. My brain had held onto this one for long enough that I knew it was going to be cool.

I looked over my lab, now outfitted quite nicely due to my paycheck from work. My eyes froze on a pile of gears I had started creating a while back. I blacked out.

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Penny

The three of us arrived at our new dorm with the usual small pop of Mr. Transport's teleportation.

The "dorm" really looked more like a house, and a nice one at that. I had seen dorm rooms before, and this was an easy step up. We were standing in the kitchen and living area of the house, and Ray seemed surprised as I was. Claire had her usual look of indifference, but that was a normal look for her.

Mr. Transport spoke then. " Welcome to Melbrook, students. This will be your home for your time in the HCP, however long that is. Your room mates will be arriving shortly, and your rooms are marked with a sign on your doors. They are all coded to your fingerprints. " Mr. Transport pointed to two doors off to the side, as he spoke about our rooms.

" Room mates? " Asked Claire, showing a bit of surprise that I knew most would never spot.

" Yes. There are five rooms in this dorm, and only three of you. Also, your chaperone will arrive once the other students are here. You may have already met her, but I will not spoil that surprise. " Mr. Transport spoke in the factual, no non-sense way that he slipped into while working.

" We shall be happy to add some new friends to our circle, and I am looking forward to this chaperone you speak of. "Ray spoke in his " face of the team" voice, with a helping of polite indifference, accent making it sound all the more impressive.

" Glad to hear it. I have other commitments today, but I hope you have a good semester. " Mr. Transport then disappeared, off to that mysterious job of his.

I turned and looked around the rooms, and decided that if I couldn't be at the lair, then this was a nice enough place to be stuck. Ray and Claire both looked happy enough, so I was satisfied. With that we split up, and started looking for our rooms.

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Stacy

Stacy Cole, going by Stacy Davies on campus, walked towards her new home on campus. Or at least she hoped she was walking towards her new dorm. The maps they gave the freshmen were a steaming pile of shit, and she had only visited her mom a handful of time here. Stacy was the daughter of Sonya Cole, the weapons professor for Lander's HCP. That wasn't something she wanted to advertise though, so she and her mother had agreed that she would go by her father's last name, Davies. She and her mother had a decent relationship, but her mom had always wanted to be training, and when she retired, she had moved cross country, something that neither Stacy nor her father had been happy about. When Stacy got her power she had hoped it would draw her and her mother closer together, but it had just shifted Sonya's focus from training herself to training Stacy.

On the upside Stacy had skills. No where near her mother, or another hero, but far above the average teen. She had also learned early on to develop habits that furthered her training and powers. She worked out daily, trained with weapons at nights, and worked on her power whenever she had time alone, usually in the afternoons. She knew that her perfect schedule was now going to be thrown into disarray, but it was for the best. These were the best teachers, and some of the strongest students around, and she knew she would grow here. She _would_ graduate from here too, but that was down the road.

She continued walking towards another piece of new construction, this one slightly more worn than the new building from Lander's crucible, but still newer than the regular campus. Melbrook. A smaller, relatively normal looking house. This would be her home for the next four years, as long as she made it through the training Lander threw at their students. She had every intention of making it through the best they could offer.

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Jessica

Jess was used to a great many things, and a great many environments. She had grown up in the in the wilderness, and then she had traveled the world doing relief work. She had seen some truly awful things, in and out of her own country. She had seen the devastation of African villages after groups of super terrorists attacked. She had seen the horrors of super attacks in the inner city of New York and Las Angeles. She had witnessed entire towns destroyed after a powered had set off avalanches and mountain slides in Europe. But the attack on Lander made her realize that she was needed back home, and it was what drew her back into the hero world after wanting to be away from it for so long.

Jessica was an Ecomancer, and a damn good one. She knew it likely came from her aunts side, since Overgrowth was one of the most famous ( and dangerous ) Ecomancers to ever live. But growing up so close to the hero world had shown her the horror it offered, and she had decided that she wanted nothing to do with it. She had graduated high school, and immediately gone to work for one of the biggest super powered relief agencies in the world. They had been thrilled to land her, and had paid her a good wage. She had never used it, just saved it for a day she might need it. She had done years of work for them, her powers growing constantly, but the need for them never slowed. Horror after horror, Jessica had gone and had her plants rebuild buildings, seek and dig out trapped people, and she had grown hundreds of thousands of acres of food crops in countries affected by famine.

Jessica loved her work, but all the while she had the nagging urge that she could be doing more than just cleaning up the aftermath. She should be stopping the damn things before they happened. She had the power, she knew that much. But she never had the taste for violence. She believed in pacifism, something that her parents and their siblings had drilled into her for years. But after years more of seeing the products of pacifism Jessica had grown tired of sitting on the sidelines, and just cleaning up the messes. She wanted to be helping stop these people, before the need for cleanup ever arrived.

After the Lander attack she had finally broken. She could no longer hold onto the idea that pacifism was the only way, and she had enrolled at Lander. The school had a good reputation, and it was less likely that any of the students would recognize her via her aunt. She had also enrolled in the other HCP's, just in case, and she had been accepted into all of them. But this was where she wanted to go, and here she was.

She walked the campus, feeling the plant life around her. Cali was a gorgeous place, with plenty of green. She stared at her map, while still " seeing " through her plants. Plants had no eyes, but they were _very_ in tune with the light sources around them. Being able to interconnect with her plants gave Jessica a sort of "vision" that had come in handy on many an occasion. It was rough, and much less useful at night, but it had saved her life more than once, so she always kept an "eye" out around her.

She finally came upon the house that was to be her home. Melbrook, she remembered. She knew that she was going to have roommates, and was looking forward to it. All her life she had been around family and community, and she was glad not to be alone for college. She took a deep breathe, and walked up to the door.

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Mary was looking forward to the new assignment she had been given, and she was just a bit excited to be going back to Melbrook, even under these new circumstances. She had missed the homey feel of the dorm that had been her abode for four years, and being a chaperone to a promising group of students seemed like a fun challenge. Even though the " official " reason for her staying there was to monitor the mental health of the "at risk" students she knew from her constant telepathic reading that the people in charge were also keenly interested in what could be learned about the alternate earth that three of her charges had come from.

The DVA, and the former heroes now in charge of it had been handling the revelation well. It had been suspected that the multiverse theory was accurate for years, and many of the powers seen in the world had melded with that theory. This, however, was the first concrete proof to be found for the theory. Her superiors wanted information, and she was a convenient way to get it.

The " at risk " program was something that she, and the campus doctor and psychologist, had been pushing for all last year. There were many students that had great potential, but were held back by issues they were not being treated for. Michael Clark was a prime example. A student with a good power, commitment, and talent, had been expelled after having a psychotic break and nearly killing another student during a test. Had his issues been identified early, and proper treatment implemented, he may have made a good hero. But he was just one more example of students not able to cope with the stress of the HCP.

Now Mary and Dr. Moran had the opportunity to interview the prospective students, and look into their backgrounds, allowing them to pick out potential trouble cases. This was a test run, a program that let those students train, but still get them the help they may need. Jessica, who had the pressure of a legacy on her, plus all the horror she had seen while doing relief work. Spectra, who had even more pressure, being the legacy of an active professor, and having some built up animosity towards her mother. And the three students from another earth, who had all seen the hard side of hero work far to early, and with far to little training.

Mary was here to make sure that these students kept up their mental health, graduation be damned.


	4. Chapter 4

Claire

Stacy was the first to arrive at Melbrook. One look at her and I knew she was one of the rare few who knew what they were getting into. She had the same look as Claudia, back home. She wasn't going into this blind, and that meant that she was going to be competition. Anyone with information on their side could be a threat, regardless of their power. That was what made Penny's mom such a nightmare to fight. Information.

I had to be sure that the three of us graduated. Nick had filled me in on the numbers that went into, and came out of, the HCP and I knew that we had to be three of those special ten. If Stacy was another of that ten, then so be it. I had never been adverse to some healthy competition.

I put on my best "friendly and harmless" face. My plan for the first year or two of this schooling was to fly under the radar, and be constantly underestimated. It's kinda my thing.

"Hi there! I'm Claire, and these two love birds are our new room mates, Penny and Ray! Nice to meet you! What's your name? Oooh! What's your power do? Is it super cool and powerful and awesome!?" I turned on just the slightest hint of my own power, and started jabbering at her. I wanted to keep this girl off guard, and maybe get some helpful information.

She looked a bit shell shocked at the outburst. Good, off guard is a good start.

"Uh. Hi, Claire. Nice to meet you? I'm Stacy. Hi Penny, Ray. "

Penny and Ray waved at her. Penny was obviously holding back laughter, and Ray looked amused, which was about as animated as he got around new people in social situations.

"Hi Stacy. We apologize for the onslaught of Claire, but it's pretty much impossible to hold her back, so we gave up trying. It's nice to meet you, and hopefully Claire will lose steam soon. " Penny spoke in a light tone, friendly and open. She knew her way around a first impression, thankfully.

Ray stepped forward, and bowed. " It is a delight to meet such a lovely lady. Might I welcome you to our new home at Lander? " Ray was in his "British and charming" gear, and I personally think it works well for him.

Stacy was recovering quickly, but that was to be expected. " Thank you both, and it's nice to meet you two as well. Am I the last one here? "

"Nope!" I grinned at her. " We're supposed to have one more roommate, and a chaperone. I can't wait to see who they are! It's so exciting!" I laid it on thick, hoping to keep myself firmly in the " non-threatening " part of her mind.

"Well, I'm glad to not be the latest to arrive, but I'll keep my power to myself. At least for now. I don't know if you've been told yet, but we have to do combat trials on the first day, and I'd like to keep my secrets in the bag until at least that part is handled." Stacy still looked a bit overdone, but she held it together.

Plus, she had foreknowledge that most students don't. Interesting.

"We have to fight?! On the first day?" I said in a shocked, but still adorable voice. I didn't want to give up all my secrets just yet.

"Yeah, all the HCPs rank their students by combat, usually on the first day of class. It's a surefire way to weed out the ones who don't want to work through pain, or have weak wills. " Stacy spoke with a confidence that said this was not news to her, so she likely had known this fact for some while. Maybe even years.

I wondered if we had a legacy on our hands, since she was so in the loop.

"Well, I'm not much of a fighter, but I'll do my best! I want to be a hero! I'm not going to let that stop me!" I kept my cheer up, playing down my own abilities.

Ray and Penny had looked on to this point, letting me do my thing, but at this point Ray stepped in to save our new roomie.

" Do you need any help with your luggage Stacy? We would be happy to help you move in. " Ray stepped forward with his offer, giving a winning smile, Penny following with a smile of her own.

" Blink twice if you just want us to get you away from Claire." Penny said in a joking tone.

"Thanks, but I packed light, so if you can show me where to unload I'll be good to go." Stacy was looking more comfortable, which was a good sign. I didn't want to scare off a potential asset, especially one with good connections in the hero world.

" Your room is right through here." Penny said, heading towards one of the doors that held our bedrooms.

"Thanks, I'd like to get everything set down, and grab a bite soon. But I guess that'll have to wait for after our meeting with the chaperone. "

"Good idea! We should all go and get lunch together !" I said. It was an excellent opportunity to get some more information on Stacy, and whoever our new room mate would be. It would be even better if we could get our chaperone to come along for the ride...

" Well, let me show you to your room!" I said, grabbing a bag, and heading towards the wing that housed Stacy's room.

Stacy looked resigned to her fate, and followed me to the the door with her name on it.

" Just put your thumb on the pad and it'll open up for you! Isn't it cool! " I pulled her towards the door, bag still in hand. It was shockingly heavy, especially for such a small bag. I was tempted to open it up under the guise of helping her unpack, but decided against crossing that particular line. No reason to ruin any good will between us so soon.

The door opened, and Stacy looked into the pre-furnished room with a small smile. " It's not the worst dorm room I could have."

Stacy walked in, turned once, and set down the bag she was lugging. "Do you mind if I get that? I'd like to let the girls out now that we're home."

"The girls? " I asked in legitimate confusion. I usually called my boobs " the girls" but I doubted that was where this was headed. Not that I would complain, Stacy looked good, and obviously kept in _great_ shape.

Stacy took the tote I had been carrying, and set it down on the bed to open it. " I call my pets "the girls", mostly out of habit. " She flipped open the tote, revealing about 20 clear cases, and began pulling them out.

"I raise and breed spiders, have been for years. Once my power emerged it seemed smart to do it in house, rather than farm the work out. " She spoke while continuing to pull put and arrange the cases, which each contained a spider. I honestly didn't know enough to identify more than the single black widow , but I researched for a living. I knew I could get my spider knowledge up to snuff.

I needed to stay in character though, not get distracted by my love for research. " OOHHhhh! Do you control spiders? Or control bugs? Can you make them giant and have them attack people?! " I doubted I would get any useful information, but I needed to give it a try.

" I'll tell you all about my powers once we get past the combat trials, but for now I want to keep any potential aces up my sleeve. Sorry Claire. " Stacy was kind enough, but she was definitely not going to budge on the power question.

" Ok..." I said with a hint of cute-but-dejected. " I guess that makes sense, I just can't wait to see what everyone can do!"

"Claire! Our other roommate is here! Come meet her! " Penny yelled, summoning us into the common room.

"Well, I guess we should go say hi! " I said, adding back some of my cheer to be sure that Stacy didn't start to feel guilty.

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Penny

I watched as Claire began to drag Stacy towards her new room, a small pang of sympathy in my chest. I knew the value to letting Claire do her thing, and I had been shown time and time again that her methods worked. Still, I felt a little guilty subjecting my new roommate to Claire's onslaught so soon.

Pushing past the little guilt I felt I turned to Ray, and said " Come my minion, we shall begin the unpacking of my evil lab! "

Ray replied smoothly " Of course my lady. We shan't have you without the ability to put your dark talents to use! "

We turned towards the door that held both of our rooms( my thanks to whoever gave us the close quarters ), but before I could swipe my thumb over the security pad the front door opened. In walked a tall, and putting it bluntly, gorgeous woman with eyes and hair so green that I knew she had to be one of us. She was striking, and carried herself with a weight I knew from home. She was another who had seen bad things, and had come through it alive, but changed.

Reading people usually fell to Claire, but I knew the look from my time around the hero world. She looked older, or at least older than Ray, Claire, Stacy, and I. I wasn't sure if that was the effect of years past, or things seen, but I could't pry to deep right now. We may only be student heroes here, but we knew how to act professional, and not get personal.

Ray stepped forward, offering a hand, and making up for my lapse in politeness. " Hello Madam, I am Ray, and the beauty you see behind me is Penny. Welcome to Melbrooke. "

I followed suit as soon as my brain got back on track. " Hi! I'm Penny! Are you the chaperone for the dorm? "

The green haired woman gripped Ray's hand, then mine, and responded ." Hi! I'm Jessica, and no, I'm a student too, not the chaperone."

" Well, welcome to the Melbrooke club! We were just talking about getting lunch once the chaperone meeting is over. Would you like to come?" I figured that just because Claire was our sneak that didn't mean I couldn't help her out every now and then. And getting both roomies on board for lunch would undoubtedly give her some good intel for the Inscrutable Machine.

" I'm down for that. It'll be nice to get to know some of the people I'll be living with. " Jessica had the aura of someone with power, but she was still kind, not cocky and brash like so many I knew.

Ray chimed in at that. " I agree. We will likely be together for several years, so it's best to get comfortable around each other. "

"Oh! You still need to meet Claire and Stacy! CLAIRE! Our other roommate is here! Come meet her!" Ray was right. We should get everyone on the right track, since we all planned on being together for the next four years.

I heard Claire give a small " Wee!" from the other room that signaled her imminent arrival, and Ray and I braced for impact.

Right on cue my best friend in the world, AKA a sentient hurricane wearing a blond wig, came rushing into the room, Stacy following behind in a much more sedate walk.

" Oh my god! I love your hair! What's your name!? I'm Claire, and this is Stacy, Ray, and Penny! Welcome to Melbrooke! " Claire had her character on point, giving Jessica a blast of her power, and another blasting of questions.

Jessica reacted like Stacy had, stepping back and trying to catch her breath. " Wow. Hello, I think. I'm Jessica, nice to meet you both. And thanks for the compliment. The hair is pretty divisive, either people love it or hate it. "

Huh. She recovered well. That was interesting. I could feel Claire's power still tickling the back of my head, so I knew it was going, but Jessica seemed to have moved past the shock stage exceptionally quickly.

" So! What's your power? Ray over there is strong and fast, and Stacy won't tell me her power till the day after tomorrow. " She shot a small, but stunningly adorable, glare over at Stacy at the mention of her power, causing the poor girl to melt, just a little.

Claire just kept going, character firmly in place, trying to keep the others off balance. " And Penny makes some of the coolest stuff I've ever seen! It's amazing! She'll have to show you! "

Jessica smiled down at Claire, doing better under the onslaught than she had any right to. " Let's just say that I have a green thumb, on top of the green hair."

Still smiling she reached into her front pocket, pulled out a tiny packet, and reached inside. Grabbing what I soon realized was a tiny seed she licked her thumb, stuck the seed onto the spot she had just licked, and a second later a beautiful plant with bell like pink flowers had grown from the seed, and up and around her arm.

"OH. MY. GOD. " Claire was nearly speechless, and Ray and I were similarly shocked. That was an impressive display, and it was also stunningly beautiful.

Stacy looked on, mouth slightly open. She was also slightly paled, which I made a note of. Claire would have to dig into that a bit deeper.

Jessica smiled down at the dumbstruck Claire, and said with an audible grin" Yeah. I love my babies. Do you think they'll mind if I let her live in the flower bed out front? "

A new voice came from the entrance. "I think that will be no problem at all, Jessica. I look forward to your other additions, but please be subtle about how you add them. We don't want you expelled from the HCP for a secret identity violation." We all turned at once to the new speaker, her sudden appearance snapping us out of the shock caused by Jessica's display of power.

She continued to speak, not at all disturbed by the surprise written on our faces. " I am your dorm chaperone, Mary, and I will be supervising you all for the duration of your time in the HCP, no matter how long that is. I am also the HCP psychologist's graduate student, and I will be seeing to your mental health, along side her. As you all know your residence here is due to your risk factors being identified in the admissions process. It is my job to be sure that the mental strain of the HCP does not break you, or cause you to be a risk to others. This should have all been explained to you before your arrival, but I find it best to throw in a quick refresher just in case. "

The Inscrutable Machine had been briefed on Mary's presence, and that we were not to show foreknowledge of her, even though we had all met before, through Sally Daniels. Claire, true to form, jumped right into the gap left in conversation by Mary's arrival and announcement.

" Hi Mary! I'm so excited to meet you! I just can't wait to get to know you, you'll be like our den mother! I guess you know who we are right? " Claire was back on track, the little minx.

" I do. " Mary said in a kind, calm voice that held just a touch of a smile. " I'm glad to see you've made your selves at home, and started getting to know each other. Now, I heard something about us all getting lunch? "

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Michael continued the journey up the stairs, lugging the small amount of luggage he had been allowed behind him. His parents had been riding his ass about getting into shape before the HCP, but he'd mostly blown them off. Michael was what most would call chunky. Not huge, but certainly not in the athletic shape his parents and sisters were.

He knew he'd gotten into the HCP on power, not his physical prowess, but right about then he was wishing he'd taken his parents more seriously when they tried getting him into what they referred to as "fighting shape". At least he didn't have to worry about getting lost. He'd given the place a good viewing once he'd decided on Lander, and had been admitted.

His power was not one that inspired awe, or made people cower in fear, but it was damn useful. Michael could see anyplace he'd ever been, or anywhere he could get a photo of. With parents in the DVA sneak division they had seen the potential immediately, and started increasing his training. He had done memory exercises, tracking and tailing, both with and without his power, and a good deal more. He liked the work, and had some talent, but he had always hated the exercise part.

Both his sisters had taken to the the training like a gay twink to jockstraps, but it had always done nothing more than frustrate Michael. He finally arrived to his room, slowed down not by the need for directions, but his lack of physical ability. Opening the door he was greeted by his worst nightmare.

A straight jock. In his room. Likely his room mate. He only had one word.

" **Shit**. "

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Andy was lounging on his "bed" ( more like prison bunk, but it would have to do for the first year ). His move had been laughably easy, thanks to his portals. All he had to do was shove one under the boxes and another a few feet above the floor, and voila, instant cross-country move. It would have been less tiring to just carry his crap upstairs, but that defeated the purpose of being a super with the power to rip holes in the fabric of space. It was the principle of the thing.

Still, opening portals took it out of him, hence the lounging around until lunch.

His door swung open, and some fat ass fuck was standing there, out of breath, looking like hell, and carrying a single bag.

Andy was many things. The son of two very effective heroes, a world class teleporter, and a good athlete. He was not, however, subtle.

The over weight ass hole looked at him once, and muttered something under his breath, sour look on his face. Now that just wouldn't do. He was Andy **fucking** Meadows, and he was _not_ going to be bad mouthed by someone who struggled to make it up god damn some stairs.

" What the fuck did you just say tubby? " Andy growled out.

"Nothing." The lard spat back at him, causing the anger to rise even faster.

"We'll see who's talking shit tomorrow after orientation. I bet you won't make it past day one, carrying all that extra weight around. " Andy was pissed, and he made it known. No one fucked with a Meadows and got away unscathed.

He stood off his bed, and stormed out, angry at more than his new room mate, not that he would ever admit that to himself.

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Michael watched the taller, better looking man walk out the door, having shoved pass him in a huff. No way in hell was he giving some jerk like that the pleasure of beating him. In that one moment Michael felt the drive that had evaded him before. He had always wanted to be a hero, but now he wanted to beat that man's arrogant ass.

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It could have been worse. The dorm rooms were certainly not glamorous, but she could make it through a year with one. At least after that she would be allowed to go and get her own place. She would need to split the rent, she hadn't saved _that_ much, but it would be a stark improvement over this broom closet with some beds.

Emily was honestly thrilled to have made it into the Lander HCP. She had worked hard to be able to afford it, but with the help of her dolls she was able to make some decent money, and her parents had been thrilled to have a child going to college, especially after her brother. Marcus had become an artist, which wasn't surprising given his "talent" for creating inks so gorgeous that they could have sold for thousands an ounce. Her parents were... less than thrilled with his career choice, mostly because he hadn't moved out yet. But that meant they had Emily set for tuition. She just had to cover the expenses outside of school.

A quick glance around the small room confirmed that she had everything in place. She had packed more than she probably should've, given the size of the rooms, but she would make it work. She just had to hope her room mate hadn't done the same thing. The other two girls who shared the living area seemed nice enough, and she was relieved to fond that all the people in her suite were HCP students.

"Hey. You Emily ?" A gruff voice echoed form the door way, and Emily turned to see a new girl. Shorter, but fit and sleek.

"Hi!" she said, walking to greet the newcomer. " Yeah, I'm Emily, are you Kaisha? "

"Yep. I guess this is it then? " Kaisha looked the room over with the same level stare she'd used on Emily. "Not much, but whatever. I didn't enroll in the HCP for the perks. "

" I guess that makes sense." Emily tried to keep the cheer up, but the roughness of the other girl made it more difficult. " We're all here to be heroes, not just enjoy the college experience. "

" I'm here to kick some ass, myself. I can't wait to put some supers in their place. " Kaisha started heading for the open door heading to the only empty bedroom.

" Wait! Aren't you a super? " Emily was shocked to hear Kaisha refer to supers like another species, something she had only heard humans do before.

" I'm a null. Nobody ever thinks of me as a fucking super. I'm just a normal, puny human to them. But the HCP apparently thinks differently, so here I am. And I just can't wait to show those cocky assholes what I can do. " With that the darker girl turned away from Emily, and slammed the door to the formerly empty bedroom

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The lander professors were again gathered around the conference room table, files and index cards spread out like a wind elemental had just suffered a panic attack.

"Jessica's going to be the toughest first round fight. Do we have anyone that is even a slightly good match-up?" The new dean of the HCP was still managing to keep her professional mask on, but it was weighing on her.

" No. We will likely have to wait to see her actual combat prowess, since at this point her raw power will be more than enough to overwhelm the other students. " Ramon was stoic, which usually held true through anything, barring Sean's involvement.

" I agree." The control professor chimed in, since she would likely be training the girl throughout her time in the HCP. " At this point we have to look at two factors, previous training, and power level. In time those will even out a bit, but right now we don't have anyone with enough of either to truly challenge her. "

" We do have a good legacy option in Stacy Kole. " Esme spoke up, to the _almost_ invisible annoyance of Sonya. " She is strong, and has some training under her belt. She will not be a true challenge, but it's the best we have on hand. "

Sonya was less than pleased, which passed the notice of everyone, aside from Esme of course. The telepath was always listening, even more so after the attack.

Ariel nodded in agreement. " You're right, that should work for the first round. At least after that the bracket takes over. "

" Who do you propose we match against a massive stone shifter?" Sonya asked, picking up the next card in front of her.

" What about your blaster boy Ramon? Do think he's got what it takes to make it through brick head? " Sean looked over to the ranged combat professor, obviously fishing for a reaction.

Ariel cut in before Ramon could respond, if for no other reason than to stop the meeting from devolving into another sarcasm-off between the two men she expected to train the next generation of heroes. "Sean, keep the nicknames to a minimum. But it is likely the best match-up, since we get to see the power of the blaster, and the durability of the stone shifter. Plus we have a lower likelihood of injuries if we match an inexperienced blaster against someone with enhanced durability."

Ramon bit back his response, seeing the attempt the Dean was making, and instead reached for his own card. "Ah. I have our newest mad genius, the Ack girl. Do we have anyone that can match her level of versatility? "

" I had one set aside for her, just a moment. " Ariel started sorting through the stack in her area, until she came up with the card she needed. " Here we go. I wanted to have her go against the girl with the weird word ability. I think she has potential, and she certainly has versatility. It will be up to her to figure out how to use that against someone who has almost as much range as she does. "

" Do you think it's a good idea to put someone so green up with the girl that has been fighting other supers for years? " Sonya interjected. " It seems like the Ack girl will have all the advantages in that sort of fight. "

" I disagree. The word girl has the potential to come out on top, if she can think of a creative solution. It won't be easy, but it's not impossible. " The control professor never looked up from her own stack of papers, simply making her statement and going about her work.

" Fine. We'll see how it goes. And they can always move up the ranks later in the year. " Sonya conceded the point, and continued working.

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Brain Ack watched his dome go over the high school, a knot of worry in his stomach. " Don't be stupid Brian, they're smart, strong, and experienced. They'll be fine..." His internal dialog was at war with his gut, which was currently yelling for him to put down the damn dome, and go after his child. But he knew he was needed above ground. If something did go terribly wrong the entire block could collapse. The problem with LA having such a huge under-city portion was that if something went wrong down below the entire city was just a sink hole waiting to happen.

The statue was immensely powerful. He knew that. He'd known that ever since Penny and the kids had freed the guardian in the middle of a middle school courtyard. But until today it had been stable. Brian Ack didn't believe in magic. He never had, and never would. But when he and BB had finally gotten the kids out of their villain phase the first thing he'd done was to have every " magical " superhero (and several villains) look the statue over. Each one had declared it to be safe to store, albeit in a secure environment.

The statue had an odd effect on those who touched it, and the objects that had a long period of contact with it. Marvelous had called it a curse, but Brian thought that it must have some affect that interfered with brain chemistry or bio-electrical functions. It somehow made those who came in contact with it stupid, clumsy, or just had them take dumb risks.

Of course that didn't explain how Penny had become immune to it, but until he found a way to bypass the effect himself... "FOCUS BRIAN! Those are your kids down there, you need to be doing your job, and they'll do theirs!"

Coming to his senses quickly he grabbed his phone and dialed BB. " BB, I need you to sound the alarm. Reach out to your contacts in the villain community, tell them we have a possible 1962 on our hands. The statue has undergone a change, and the kids are doing their best to dispose of it now. They're going to the deep under-city to have the machine ingest it, hopefully it will be able to hold or dissipate the energy coming off it with minimal damage."

BB was instantly in the Audit mode. " What was the location relative to the surface that they were going to attempt the destruction of the statue? "

" Evolution's lair. Beneath Santa Monica. If they can make it that far, that is. " Brian's gut twisted again at that. He had no way of knowing when the statue would complete its reaction, much less what the result would be.

" I'll have my contacts start evacuating the area, under any means necessary. You'll be coordinating the hero side? " BB was in her element, professional, and ready to do her duty.

" Yes. I'll contact you to confer once my arrangements are complete. " Brian was about to hang up the phone and continue preparing for the potential disaster when he heard his wife's voice on the line, in stark contrast to the emotionless vice of the Audit.

" Brian. The kids will be fine. They're pro's, and can handle this. Focus on our work, and let them be the heroes that they are. " Brian stopped. He took a moment to take it all in and responded. " I know honey. But they're still our kids. I can't help but worry. "

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Beatrice Benevolence Ack was gone. The Audit was all that remained, at least for now. She had purposely avoided making the mental switch over to BB, because once she did she would have to confront the fact that her three children, though two were adopted, were gone. Missing. Not dead. But missing.

Brian had gone over the sight of the incident with a team of mad scientists, from both sides, and they all confirmed that there had not been an explosion, but an implosion. Redeye had said that she could see traces of a temporal anomaly, but she had no way of tracing the path the tunnel had taken.

Thanks to the work of a team of villains and heroes the Santa Monica strip head been cleared out in record time, saving thousands of lives. 6,789, to be exact. And the Audit was nothing if not exact.

The evacuation was... unorthodox, to say the least. That happened when you used villains to do rescue work. But it had been necessary. According to the Audit's calculations there had been far to few super heroes with appropriate power sets to complete the evacuation, so the villains had been vital. Plus, it had been amusing to see Lucifar flying around on her newly returned wings, hauling a metro bus over the skyline.

Plus, it wasn't like the super-villains had been a hard sell. No one wanted a repeat of 1962. When Richter had made his first appearance no one had payed much attention. An earth elemental robbing banks had been nothing new. When Richter had gone insane after attempting to steal an alien artifact and sank four city blocks into the under-city, resulting in thousands of deaths, and untold amounts of property damage, that had certainly made an impression.

" BB. snap out of it. We need _you_ right now, not the Audit. " The Minx's voice came pounding into the Audit's ears, shaking her from her stupor.

"There we go. The Audit did her job, but right now you need to come out and do yours. Brian is a mess honey, and he needs his wife. The Inscrutable Machine has allies in high _and_ low places, and we'll not stop until we get our kids back. Go see your husband, and let us work. " The Minx was nothing like her usual bubbly self, understandably. Those were her kids too, and she was in just as much pain as BB.

" You're right. Thank you for getting me to see it. I just... I can't loose them, not this soon. Our work is dangerous, but they're my kids Misty. _Our_ kids. I can't stand the thought of not getting them back from wherever that damn bridge took them. " BB was back, and holding it together. She had lost people before, everyone in the hero or villain world had. But nothing prepares you to loose your children.

"We _will_ get them back. I just know we will. But right now you need to go help you husband stabilize. He's taking this even harder than we are. He feels guilty, which is utter bullshit. He did the right thing, and you need to go and convince him of that, before it breaks him. " Misty looked worse than BB had ever seen. She was the Minx for gods sake, she never looked less than stunning. But today she was wearing her years like a burden, not an accessory.

" Come with me, Misty. You're right, we need to support each other right now. Then we'll go get our damn kids back." BB stood, grabbing the Minx, and heading to her car. She would be damned to eternity in Hell before she would let her children go.

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The Sorceress, otherwise known as Barbara Tinsley sat across from Lucifar and her sister, She Who Wants. They needed all the magical energy they could muster if they wanted to complete this spell, and Barbara **was** going to complete this spell.

Oddly enough Lucifar was acting as the voice of reason in the circle. "You know this is dangerous. Are you sure you can risk it? You meds may be working, but overuse of your power could cause the voices to break back through. "

She Who Wants nodded, slowly. " The Inscrutable Machine was a friend to me, and I will take the risk gladly if it means we can return them to us. "

She really had been doing better the last few years. She had gotten her GED, started working a legit job( for Spyder, but it still counted ), and had gotten a sort of normal life back. But the IM was important to her, and even more important to Barbara. She was willing, especially if it got her sisters first, and best friends back into this dimension.

Lucifar nodded. " OK then. I want those brats back as much as anyone, so I'm willing to lend my energy to the spell, but it falls to you two to shape it. I'm not attuned to any of the multidimensional powers, and I'm not willing to risk using an artifact to get on the right wavelength. "

Barbara nodded back to the woman, cloaked in black energy of her own creation. " We're more than enough to get past the barrier, we just don't have the energy to do the tracking on the other side. "

She Who Wants spoke then, in the same multi-toned voice that she always had when accessing her power. " Let us begin. "

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Will was helping with the cleanup, or what was left of it. After Groundswell had come through and raised and re-enforced the street (and the under city below) to the best of her ability there was still ruble to clear, and personal belongings to try and save before the bidding war started for contracts to rebuild the destroyed city blocks.

Currently on rubble duty, Will had a pedestrians eye view of the damage, and it was striking. He could only imagine what the toll would have been if the statue had been above ground when the implosion occurred. As it was most buildings were beyond repair, and the street would need to be completely rebuilt. That was nothing compared to the underground damage to water, power, sewage, and gas.

Will stopped his work for a moment, catching a glimpse of Cassie, Rage, and Ruin, all working on the larger and more dangerous pieces of rubble. Will still had a bit of a crush on Cassie, but he knew that it was a one way street, so he had stopped pursing it. Still, it was awe-striking to see her electric monsters moving and stacking rubble like it was nothing. Cassie had only become more powerful over the years, and the Upgrade given to her by the fourth horseman had certainly helped along the way.

Cassie was still in love with Penny, though she had learned to hide it better over the years. They were both in the same boat, but Cassie had not learned to push her feelings aside as well as Will had. Will knew that Cassie would stop at nothing to get Penny back, and that she had already called in a favor with her "grandpa " to start the long, arduous process of tracking and retrieving the Inscrutable Machine from where ever the bridge had sent them.

The Inscrutable Machine would be saved, Will had no doubt. They just had to get to them.

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Penny

Penny and Ray sat in Penny's room, letting the stress of the day fade, while catching up on the other-world reality television that they had soon become addicted to.

"Are we really going to do this? " Penny said, still staring at the TV, which was displaying a show about Super Athletics Association players trying to find the perfect wallpaper for their fourth vacation home.

"Do what? " Ray asked, turning to look at the girl he had loved for years.

"Commit to this program. If we do this we're promising to work four hard years to become heroes for a world we don't belong to. Shouldn't we be trying to get home? With my job I can fund my own research, and we can try and go back. Are you really ready to give up on the possibility that we'll never see home again, or our parents, or _anyone_ ever again? " Penny was becoming more desperate as she spoke, but she stayed glued to the TV, afraid that she would see disappointment in her boyfriends eyes.

" Penny, this is what we do. This is what we trained for, this is our duty. I know that I don't have the same ties to our home, but I do love Brian and BB, and Misty, and all our friends. I would love to go back, but the statue that dragged us here is gone. I know that Claire has been trying to track it for months, and she's had no luck. This is where we are, and I think we need to do what it takes to get back on the job. " Ray was quiet, but he spoke with force and conviction. Ray had become a staunch protector of innocents over the years, and that trait had only made Penny proud, until now.

" But we can't give up! That's our home, our whole lives work is back there, all the people we love, everything! " Penny had a slightly manic tone to her voice, but Ray interrupted before she could go on.

" The person I love the most in the world is right here, and our best friend is mere feet away. We may never get back to the place we called home, so I say that we do our best here. We can't sit back and let people die in the streets because we want to go home. This is our duty, and I believe you know that. You're the one who kept Claire and I centered and on the right path back in the old days, and you were the one who wanted nothing more than to be a hero, helping those who were caught in something they could never understand, much less defend them selves against. You **are** a hero Penny Ack. And this program is how we can get back to work, saving those who need us. " Ray spoke with such conviction that Penny broke. She had been holding in so much fear and sadness, and it came flooding out at those words.

This was not only her duty, it was the work she loved. And Ray was right, she needed to get back to it. She would never give up on home, but she would focus on the program for now. She was a hero, and she was going to prove it tomorrow.

Penny grabbed Ray, and held on for dear life. He held her like that for a long, long time, letting her cry. He was confident in her, and he knew that tomorrow she would show the HCP why the Inscrutable Machine had been both loved and feared.

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Mary sat, listening to the thoughts of her charges. She was glad that Penny had finally had a breakthrough on her own. The poor girl was now facing that she may never get back to the world she loved, and instead of becoming angry or biter, she resolved herself to becoming a better hero for this world.

It struck Mary that she had slipped into place so easily here that she had almost missed it happening. She now lived in the suite of rooms that the two Company agents had occupied for years, and she felt more at home than she had since she had moved out of Melbrooke at the end of her senior year.

She changed her focus to the other charges under her protection. Claire Lutra was in her room, doing research so fast that Mary was challenged keeping up with it. That girl had a mind on par with Nick's, and she was proving now that she knew how to use it. Funnily enough Claire was on the wrong track, but that was for her to find out. Mary knew the breakdowns on all her charges powers, so the fact that Claire was researching heroes with animal control or biological abilities was a give away that she had yet to uncover the true ability of Stacy Kole.

Stacy was one of the fights that Mary most looked forward to seeing tomorrow, and she would be watching it in person. It helped that two of her charges were in the same first round battle, but she would have been there regardless. Stacy was one she worried about. Mary knew pressure to succeed. Alice had so many expectations on her in the first year of school that Mary had been tempted to stop listening to the girls thoughts. Her father had put to much on her, but she had come through it. Stacy felt almost as much pressure, but in a different way. Sonya had wanted her daughter to follow in her footsteps, and had trained the girl for years. Thankfully she had never been insistent on a hero career for her daughter, but Stacy had internalized her mothers absence as a remark on her worth. Sonya loved the girl dearly, and had seen her career as protecting her daughter, but Stacy had only seen it as an attempt to get away from a disappointing progeny.

The move to California, and the acceptance of the teaching job had not helped the situation. It had allowed Sonya more time with her daughter, and was far safer, both things that the rational ( and slightly detached ) hero saw as benefits. Stacy just saw it as another way for her mother to avoid retirement and still be away from home. Mary would be keeping a close eye on Stacy. She hoped that a closer relationship with her mother would assist in the healing process, but she also knew that getting Sonya to have an emotional conversation would be challenging.

The student psychologists mind turned to her last charge, Jessica. Undoubtedly the most powerful, Jessica also had the most trauma, with the possible exception of Ray. She had worked for years in a field that was almost as mentally damaging as hero work. Jessica had seen things that left deep scars, but she remained a person that wanted to do good in a world that she knew for a fact was often cruel and deadly. That spoke volumes about her character, and her determination.


	5. Chapter 5

" Ah. The first day of the new year. I just love getting to crush the hopes and dreams of children, and get payed for it. " Sean Pendleton sighed dramatically, looking over towards his fellow freshman coach, the former Mr. Volt.

The other coach merely rolled his eyes, used to the heavy sarcasm that the man used as a mask for his actual emotions. " Let's get on with it Sean. Can't leave the kiddies waiting. "

The two walked in silence for the last few yards, then opened the door to the gym, and stepped into the pool of waiting freshman. Making their way to the small stage that held the dean and the other professors they looked over the faces in the room, gauging the emotions. Fear was a common one, followed closely by cocky disregard. That would fade soon enough. A few were determined, which was good. Three faces stood out to Professor Fletcher though, and he soon realized it was the three students that had been admitted under... _Special_ circumstances. Those three were ready, fearless, with just a hint of determination thrown in. He shouldn't be surprised, those three had faced situations far scarier than this. But it did merit keeping a close watch on them, just in case.

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Penny

Today was _the_ day! I have to admit I was almost excited, aside from the _small_ mental breakdown that Ray had walked me through last night. This was the first step to getting back to work, and having something resembling my normal life back. I hadn't realized it until it was torn away from me, but my life back home was completely based on my hero work. Al my friends, all my family, and all my efforts were poured into my hero persona, and now that it was gone i had nothing to fill that gap. This was a way for me to get back to work, and I relished the idea of having any sense of normality.

" **CLaIre**! Get up ! It's almost time to go down to orientation! " I tried to keep my bellow somewhat subdued, but from the look Stacy shot me I suspected I may have failed...

Claire finally emerged from her room, looking stunning per usual. I was still slightly offended that my power refused to repeat the super cheerleader serum. Not only did Claire stay in supernaturally good shape, but she never needed the tiniest touch of makeup, her skin just stayed perfect.

" I'm coming! I just wanted to look perfect for any boys I might meet downstairs! You never know when Mr. Right will show up! " Claire had let her character mellow out a bit, but she was still playing up the " ditzy blond who is _way_ to cheerful " aspect of herself.

"Oh hi Stacy! You look amazing today! I love that scarf! If that silk? It looks so chic and expensive! " Claire made her way over to our new roomie and friend and started examining the materiel, which did look beautiful.

Not that I was a fashion expert, my clothes gave that away in no time. I just hoped my hair would stay in one place today. I had learned to put it into a tight braid to help eliminate it coming down in combat, but nothing was perfect.

"It is silk. You have a good eye Claire. It's my lucky scarf, and I figure that today I need all the luck I can get." Stacy had loosened up a little, no doubt due to Claire's disarming presence. Well, honestly I think putting someone shy around Claire is like throwing them into the deep end of the pool. They'll learn to swim quickly, but the first few minutes is stressful. Thankfully Stacy had started swimming in no time.

" I can't wait! I may not be a fighter, but I love to watch a good brawl! Wrestling is my jam! " Claire stopped fondling Stacy's scarf, and moved on to putting on her own shoes, a pair of heels that gave me back pain just looking at them.

" Are you going to wear those downstairs? Heels may not be the best idea for a day of fighting... " as she spoke Stacy adjusted the bag on her shoulder, which was obviously heavy, even for someone as fit as her.

" I've got flats, but I want to make a good first impression on my new classmates, if you know what I mean. " Claire winked suggestively at the more stoic Stacy,making her meaning _very_ clear.

"Are you all ready to go down? " Jessica asked, walking briskly out of her own room. She had a strange belt with dozens of tiny pouches tossed over her shoulder.

Claire got the question out before I could, turning to Jessica with another beaming smile. " OOh what's with the utility belt? Is that for our HCP activities? "

" I keep some of my seeds in here. It let's me get easy access to whatever I need without digging into a bunch of random pockets hoping I get the right one. This puts them all in order! " Jessica seemed almost as cheerful as Claire, and I couldn't tell if that was a good sign, or if it meant that I was going to be dragged on more shopping trips. Either way it was nice to see her feeling good, especially considering the stress that came with the HCP.

" Don't worry Penny, Jessica is almost as anti-shopping as you are, just for different reasons. Are you all ready to head down to the HCP? " Mary had stepped into the room, and literally taken the question out of my head. I still hadn't got used to living with the telepath, but I could definitely see why she was majoring in psychology.

" I think so! I can't wait, it's so exciting, like a spy movie or something! Did you get Ray on your way over? I wouldn't want him to be late to the first day. " Claire had gracefully skated over the obvious use of telepathy, and still stayed innocuous. This was why I was just the tiny bit scared of my friend. You could never tell exactly what she was thinking, or what her motives were. Well, Mary could, maybe, but the rest of us were in the dark until Claire decided we should know.

"I did Claire. Penny don't forget your bag, you'll want all your toys in the combat trials. Claire, I think you're forgetting something as well." Mary was right, I would definitely need my toys if I wanted any hope of making a good impression. I already had them packed into a regular looking gym bag, I just needed to grab them.

"You're right! I still have Ray's night-night stick! He'll probably want that today. " Claire turned and dashed back to her room, thumb scanning in record time, and Claire returning with the little black pouch dad had made for Ray in hand. The night stick was an almost normal baton, just _waaayyy_ heavier than any policeman would want to lug around. Of course Claire made it look like nothing, but I ignored that. I mean, I really tried to ignore that. Some days I wanted to give my superpower a piece of my mind...

" Alright everyone, let's get down there." Mary promptly turned and made her way to the door, opening it and striding through with earned confidence. I still didn't know what Mary's story was, but I knew that she was far more than just a normal college student turned HCP grad student.

Mary passed the other door, turning quickly to call for Ray. " Ray, come on, we're heading down to orientation. "

Ray strode briskly through the door, dressed in his usual black clothes, a look he had never moved on from. I was totally fine with that. _Sooo_ fine with that. He looked good in anything, but the black made him look good _and_ dangerous, like a panther turned human.

Ray glided over to me, his superhuman grace on full display. " My darling Penny. You look amazing as usual. " He turned to face the others in our little group. " And good morning to you all. I hope I haven't made us late? "

"Not at all. I just wanted to be sure that everyone caught my demonstration on the lift system, so I don't hear any excuses about it later. " Mary had started walking again, heading for the kitchen. Once she arrived she moved to the wall mounted oven, and adjusted the temperature to 1163 degrees Fahrenheit, and placed her hand on the metal handle meant to open the oven door. With that done the pantry door to the right swung open, and revealed an elevator, not a collection of non-perishable food items.

"As you can see the lift can only be opened by the combination of a pass code, and a bio-metric match specific to you, or your fellow HCP students. However the other students will not be made aware of this door unless you all decide to do so, for privacy reasons. You can also return to the dorm via this lift, though I recommend going with the regular lifts as to not tip your hand. Coming up this lift is only possible if the bio-metric component belongs to you five, myself, or a member of the HCP staff. Other students will not be able to access your home without your permission. " Mary turned away from the oven-turned-mad-science-device and stared at each of us.

" Please do not be tempted to abuse this system, as it can easily be cut off. This is here for the sole reason that the other students also have lifts in their own dorms. Now, let's get going. " Mary strode into the elevator, which I noticed was far larger than our pantry had been.

My power liked what it had seen, and started gibbering about the different ways it could be done, but I ignored it as usual. I did not need to get into trouble for messing with inter-dimensional pockets. Maybe next year after I had some good will built up with the professors. That seemed to calm her down, and the noise faded away to its usual endless muttering in the back of my head.

We piled into the elevator after Mary, and I noticed Claire slipping Ray his Night-night stick. He never let go of my hand, but the little black pouch disappeared into his pocket. The elevator ride took longer than I expected, but it shouldn't have been a surprise. This was a training ground for some of the most powerful people on the planet, it made sense to put a large buffer between us and the normal humans that were just trying to make it through their classes.

The elevator stopped smoothly, and the doors opened without a sound. The engineering on these were top notch, unsurprisingly. Our little group stepped out into a long ( like really, really long ) hallway, and we followed Mary on the journey to orientation. The halls were a bland grey, made up of some materiel that almost resembled concrete, but I knew from the little voice in the back of my head was far stronger, and a lot weirder.

We walked in silence, the huge hall being somewhat intimidating. Not to mention this was the first day of our HCP careers, and that we were going to be thrown into a trial by combat later this morning. It was a lot to take in, but the Inscrutable Machine and I had been through worse than this. Jessica seemed to be taking it all in without a problem, still walking with a smile on her face, and confidence in her step. Stacy on the other hand had gone stoic, almost cold, in our way down the elevator. Claire had told Ray and I that she suspected Stacy had a parent or parents in the hero world, and I agreed. She was determined, and not showing off the fear I imagined most "normal" kids would have walking into this situation.

After a walk that seemed longer than it really was ( according to my super secret mad science tech, a wrist watch ) we appeared in another hallway, this one a crowded mess of students. We joined the horde in their march, heading to a huge set of double doors, our apparent destination. The group was both loud and subdued. No one spoke above a whisper, but the combined mass of shuffling feet created a dull roar in the not-concrete hallway.

Finally arriving at the doors Mary spoke to our little clique. " I'll be with Dr. Moran today, but I'm keeping an ear on you all. Be safe, and show the others why you were accepted, not only to the HCP, but to Lander. Kick some ass. " With that she strode towards the stage, meeting another woman in a smart pantsuit, and going to a pair of seats that were probably assigned to them ahead of time.

Claire turned to Jessica and Stacy. " Would you two like to sit with us? We're going to stick together for now, but we'd love to have you both along! "

I wasn't sure what Claire had going on, but I trusted her, so I nodded to the other girls, smiling and making sure they knew they were welcome.

Jessica responded immediately. " I think I will join you guys. It's nice to have friends in a new place like this. "

Ray and I turned to look at Stacy, who shook her head. "I really like you four, but I want to meet some new people. See you guys later? "

"Of course! " Claire said, still smiling at the girl. " I plan on making some connections my self tonight at the party! We'll be sure to meet back up with you then! "

"Sounds good. " Stacy gave Claire a small grin, and marched into the crowd.

" Well let's get some seats, this thing is due to start in a few minutes. " Claire led our own charge, on the hunt to find four open chairs.

Eventually we did find seats, and we all sat in a collective sigh of relief, each holding a bag, or in Jessica's case, and big belt. We had barely made it in time, the first speaker, and pretty, but rather unassuming red-haired woman stepping to the podium. I recognized her figure from our first time down here. This was our Dean, and the person who would ultimately decide if we graduated or not.

" Welcome freshman to your first day of HCP training. There are several things to address before we begin the day. The first and most important is that most of you will not make it past the first year. Out of those that do make it into the second year of training only ten will graduate. We accepted 67 people into this years freshman class. Take a look around, and realize that only ten of you will graduate." The dean spoke with clarity and confidence, but the others in the room had gone dead silent.

" Please remember that these are the odds you are fighting against, and that if you do not constantly surpass your best then you will not be one of the ten who graduates from the Lander HCP. I expect great things from you all. Now, onto the business at hand. Today you will all be competing in a single elimination combat trial to assess your skills, and to give you your starting combat ranking." A small murmur of uncertainty ran through the other students at those words from the dean, though there were a few notable exceptions. I saw one boy visibly roll his eyes at the distress of his classmates. Ray gave my hand a slight squeeze, but didn't take his eyes off the dean.

" We at the HCP do understand that combat is not the only thing hero needs to excel at, but it is what most heroes end up specializing in, so we will be testing for combat skills across all of our students. There is also the matter of the secret identity rule that we have in place for all HCP students. This was clearly explained in the packets you were given before arriving on campus, but since we have already had one student get dropped from the program due to his insistence on giving a super-powered light show to his dorm mates I will be reminding you all once more. Use of your powers above ground is not forbidden, but every Lander student has the ability to report a student to the administration office if they are seen using superhuman abilities. These reports must be accompanied by a detailed account, and are taken seriously. If you are reported by a student with a legitimate claim you will be removed from the HCP. The circumstances of the power use do not matter. That is not to say I expect you all to sit by and do nothing if you see a person in need, but I admonish you all to think before you jump into a situation that may require use of your powers. Try to solve any issues through mundane means. This rule is in place for two reasons. The first and most obvious is to give you a clean slate for your potential hero career. Should you graduate you will most likely keep a secret identity, and this is excellent practice for living like a mundane human. The second reason is to force you to think, and to try and come up with ways around power usage. As a hero you will need to constantly think outside the box, and this gives you an opportunity to start now."

I had known about the secret identity rule of course, but to know that someone had already been removed for it, before the first day had even started was a bit jarring. I was confident in my ability to keep my power under wraps, but the last thing I wanted was to be kicked out for a dumb slip up.

The dean charged ahead in her speech, seemingly ignorant the discomfort she had caused in her new student body. " Lastly before the combat trials I want to introduce you to the coaches that will be training you, should you make it through the day. "

With that two men stepped forward, both familiar to me, for different reasons. One was obviously the larger man that had been there for our admissions test. The other was Sean Pendleton. I knew Sean would be training us, but I hadn't known he was going to be teamed up with the older man for the training.

"These are the freshman coaches, Coach Pendleton, and Coach Fletcher. Coach Pendleton will handle your alternative training, and Coach Fletcher will handle your combat training. If you both would like a chance to introduce ourselves and say a few words? " The dean stepped away from the podium, letting Sean Pendleton take her place.

" Good morning fresh meat. I am Coach Pendleton, and I will be showing you all exactly how weak you are. I don't care who was big boy on the block back home, here **I** am the one you should fear. I look forward to seeing who has the guts to make it through the combat trials, and who quits the HCP before I even get started on you. " Sean stepped away, letting the older gentleman take the microphone. He was obviously the bad cop of the two, and he played the part well. I wasn't able to see any of the usual sarcasm he wore, though I was sure it was lurking under that mask he wore.

" I am Coach Fletcher. Welcome to the hardest thing any of you have ever done. Today I and the other HCP professors will be overseeing your trials. These will determine your combat ranking, and that will soon determine whether or not you will be in the combat class or the alternative class. Both are equally valid, but if you have your heart set on being a certain type of hero then this is your chance to prove you're up to snuff. Before we begin splitting you up I want to remind anyone who's power uses or is augmented by outside equipment that it will need to be double checked by either Coach Pendleton or I before you are allowed to use it in the combat trials. I also want to remind you all that any sort of lethal force is strictly prohibited. If you use such force you will automatically lose your fight, be removed from the HCP, and have possible charges filed against you. What lethal force is will change from match to match, so be smart, and be careful. "

The combat coach walked to stand next to his partner, and the Dean stepped to the podium once more. I was a little unnerved by the lethal force warning, but I guess it had to be said.

"Thank you both for those _edifying_ words to our students. We will now be splitting you up by sex, and the screens in the back of the room will direct you to your first round. The combat cells are clearly marked, and failure to appear at your cell on time will result in an automatic match loss. The first round will begin in fifteen minutes, so please begin making your way to the cell you and your opponent have been assigned to. The professors will be here for the next ten minutes to approve any outside equipment. " With those parting words the dean walked to the back of the room and disappeared through a door that led... Somewhere. I didn't really have time to think about it, I needed to get my babies checked over, and get to my room. I was _not_ going to lose by default.

Heading to the front of the room where the two Coaches stood stoically, Ray and Jessica behind me, I clutched my gym bag, doing my best to stay calm and stoic. I wasn't scared, but I did have the pre-fight adrenaline rush that never seemed to stop, even after years of combat. I got to the professor, or coaches, whichever, first, and headed to Coach Pendleton. I unzipped my bag on the way over, readying my self to explain the contents.

" I see you came prepared. Congratulations on not making the same mistake a good deal of our technological genius students seem to make. " Sean was still the bad cop, but it didn't matter for my purposes. I just needed him to OK my toys for the trial.

" I'll take that as a complement, I guess." I said with a good bit of snark in my voice. He wasn't going to reveal that we knew each other, so I would do the same. That didn't mean I as going to let him be a jerk and get away with it...

"Don't. It just shows that you don't have the same idiot-savant problem a lot of kids with your talent come in here with. What have you got for me today?" He leaned to look into the bag I was carrying.

" The usual. You all should have it on record, I'm not trying anything new out today. I have my suit, its built in weapons systems, Vera, my teleport bracers, and my machine. Plus some metal for the machine to eat. " I kept my voice low, not wanting to give anything away to potential competitors, but he clearly heard me, since he nodded his head quickly.

" I've read the briefs on all of those. I hope I don't need to remind you that some of what your packing can be lethal against certain opponents? "

" So can a fist, or a rock off the ground. I would never put an innocent person at risk by misusing my weapons, and I think you know that. I wouldn't be allowed in here if that wasn't true." I spoke in the same low voice, but I wasn't going to give ground. I was no killer, and I was not going to take any insinuation that I might be lying down.

Sean looked at me for a moment, and nodded. " You're right, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention that fact. you're approved. Now get out of my hair. "

I shook my head at the mans words, but I still grabbed my bag and headed for the back of the room. Ray was waiting for me in the rows of chairs, and I grabbed his hand as we walked to the screens that held our fate. " Did Coach Fletcher give you any trouble for your Night-Night stick? " I asked him quietly.

" No, just a warning about lethal force, and a recommendation to go for the extremities. I assured him I would be careful, and he approved me for the matches. " Ray spoke lowly too, more than smart enough to realize the value of information, both to us _and_ our opponents.

" Good. You're downright scary with that thing. " I said, giving him a wink.

We got to the screens quickly, but the crowd around them was still thick. Claire was there, mid crowd, and chatting up a pretty Asian girl. As we tried to make our way through the crush of people to the screens I heard a loud grunt, and cough. A tall, good looking guy had shoved another boy, shorter, and a bit heavy in his attempt to get to the screens.

"Get out of the way fatty! Some of us real contenders need to see who we're about to smash into the ground. You'd be better off not going to the first round. Hell, you'd be better off just walking away now. Come back when you're not doing a dough boy cosplay!" The taller teen laid into the other boy with a force I was honestly shocked by. This was supposed to be a training ground for heroes, not a place for the bullies of the world to come learn how to punch harder.

I was mid step, heading to intercept the next shove, when Claire appeared in front of the taller guy, frown firmly in place. " And just what do you think your doing Mr? ! "

She looked angry, and I could tell that this wasn't a fake, she was not having the taller boys bullying.

"I'm just trying to give fatty here some good advice. Look at him sweetheart, he doesn't belong here. He belongs in a weight-watchers meeting. " The tall boy didn't have any idea the hellfire he was calling down on himself. Claire had never been one to tolerate bullies, and she never had been. All the way back to middle school Claire had been nice to everyone, and that police hadn't changed.

"Back off asshat! He's not doing anything to you! And don't call me sweetheart. I'd rather date a rotting corpse before I'd go with someone like you. " Claire turned away from the taller man, towards the person he'd been abusing.

Before she could get there the taller man spoke again. " Dumb bitch. I can't wait to see you wash out with the rest of the weaklings. "

That was a bad. Really bad. Like, might as well have just set yourself on fire bad. Ray tensed next to me, ready to spring into action to protect Claire. Or maybe to punch out the guy she was about to destroy. Claire always got her revenge. I just had to wait and see how she did it.

Claire slowly turned back to the now dead man walking. I felt her power surge over the crowd, and she glowered at him in the most adorable way I could imagine. Slowly she reached into her purse and grabbed a marker. I recognized it as one of Will's special markers. The kind that only came off after 72 hours, or with the application of a solution he had also created.

" What's your name? " She said in the sweetest, fakest voice I could imagine.

"Ah-uh... Andy?" The boy stuttered out.

" You know Andy, you're pretty good looking. But I just love a man with facial hair. You would look _sooooo_ nice with a good mustache. Maybe even a beard. What do you think about that, Andy? " She smiled at the man, and I knew what she was planning. The rest of the crowd was silent, entranced by her power. I could feel it strongly, but I had years of immunity built up to it.

" You? YOu think that'd look good?" Andy muttered out, completely under her spell.

"I do, Andy. Why don't you draw one on, at least until your balls drop enough to grow one on your own. " She handed the bewitched boy the marker, and he proceeded to go to town on his face. He got a full beard on, like old Amish man beard, before Claire took back the marker.

"Thanks Andy. I really think that's a good look for you. " With that she turned, grabbed the shorter boy's hand, and pranced to the door, heading to her first round match.

After a few seconds the mental fog cleared, and Andy came back to himself.

"What the FUCK ! What was that shit! Why did no one stop her! WHat the Hell! ? " Andy bellowed, looking around, and rubbing at his face, unable to understand what had just happened.

"That is what happens when you fuck with people in the HCP. Everyone here got i for a reason, including that boy you were accosting. I would recommend not attempting to bully any one else in my program, or you will regret it far more than you can imagine. But I believe that the three days of extra gym class will give you some time to let your imagination run wild. I look forward to seeing you this weekend. " Coach Pendleton walked through the still shell shocked crowd, and went in the direction of the combat cells.

"Aren't you going to punish that bitch for what she did to me?! " Andy yelled, causing Pendleton to turn around.

" Punish her? I don't see why. She did what you're all here to train for. She protected someone else. And I would thank her if I were you. Her punishment saved you from a full week of extra gym sessions with me. " The coach turned once more, and this time left with no more interruptions.

The crowd around Ray and I started to move again, everyone remembering that they still had to get to their own trials.

I turned to my boyfriend. " That is why you never mess with a Lutra. "

Ray nodded. " I assure you that I have no plans of doing so. And I doubt anyone else does after that show. "

" You're right. She'll probably be mad that she showed off her power so soon, but I think it might be worth it in the long run. It certainly shows the teachers what she can do. " Ray just nodded, a thoughtful look on his face.

We got to the board soon enough, and found our respective rooms. Ray leaned in, and planted a kiss on my face. " I know you'll do well, oh dark lady. "

I kissed him back, and we parted, each to our own challenge.

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I did make a quick stop to change into my suit. I wasn't about to face down foes with incredible power and not have my first line of defense on. That done I got to my room seconds before the door swung shut, and found it already occupied by a mousy looking girl. She was nervous, extremely nervous. I noted the knife strapped to her thigh. It wouldn't do much against my armored body, but it may help against another opponent. On her other leg was a small black box, but I couldn't figure out what was inside...

She saw me, and giggled. A small bubbly sound, it seemed to help wipe away some of her fears. " You look like you're out of a star wars movie!"

I smiled under my visor, glad that she was loosening up. " Thank you! I take any star wars reference as a complement. I'm Penny, by the way. "

"Katya." She replied, still smiling from the storm trooper joke.

" Nice to meet you Katya. I wish you luck. " I tried to be polite, but I had to keep in mind that I needed to beat this girl, and then we could be friends later.

A voice crackled over a hidden loudspeaker, drawing my eye to the definitely-not-glass window that was above us."Please step forward and shake hands. " Now that I looked up I could see just how huge the room was. That was good though. Lots of room to maneuver, and the high ceilings meant that I could take to the air if needed. Katya and I shook, and the speaker buzzed again.

"This is a reminder to keep any attacks non-lethal. A healer will be provided after each round for both competitors. The match will end when one party is unconscious, unable to move for three consecutive minutes, when one party concedes the match, or anytime I decide that the match cannot continue. You may begin at any time. "

With that I dove into my belt pouch and activated Vera. She was my best defense, and against armored opponents she made a great offense.

I looked up from grabbing Vera to see Katya unsheathing her knife. I expected her to come at me, but instead she drove the knife into her own arm, drawing a good bit of blood, but not disabling the limb. Katya took a deep shuddering breath, re-sheathing the knife with one hand, and drawing out a handful of... something from her other pouch.

I couldn't tell what they were, but they didn't look that dangerous. I felt bad going on the offensive against the smaller girl, but I needed to prove my worth here, so I took a small step forward and teleported. I re-materialized behind Katya, and said the BRENDA " Bring up the night-night gun, small dose, manual targeting. "

As I was giving BRENDA her orders Katya dipped her fingers in the blood dripping down her arm. I watched, honestly curious more than anything, as she took a white card out of the stack she was holding and smeared the blood onto it. As soon as she did so she staggered for just a moment, and CrimminY! A _**tiger appeared**_ next her. A real life, definitely in my face, totally there tiger. She turned towards me, and sat down, looking paler than she had when our fight started.

The next thing I knew the tiger was headed towards me, and I did an almost instinctive teleport. I appeared in the back corner of the room, as far away from the TIGER as I could. I tried to keep my eyes on the tiger, but I knew Katya was my opponent here. "Brenda, you target the tiger, but try to keep it non-lethal. If that's a real animal I want it to live through this. " I focused on Katya as the tiger tried to figure out just what had happened. It soon turned in my direction, but this time it came slowly, in more of a prowl than a charge.

Katya, however, was shuffling through the stack of cards in her hand. Index cards maybe? She grabbed the one she had been looking for, and smeared blood on it again. As soon as her blood touched the card a loud **BANG**! filled my ears. Bars filled my vision now, and looking around I realized a cage had surrounded me, heavy metal bars on all sides. I didn't know how she had done it, but Katya had made a tiger and a cage appear from no where.

I yelled out as soon as I realized what had happened . " Vera, melt the bars! "

A quick flash of light and heat later and the bars that used to be in front of me were now a pile of melted metal and slag on the floor. Brenda took advantage of a clear line of sight and sent two quick shots off the night night gun, straight into the tiger. It collapsed almost immediately, the drugs taking hold amazingly quickly.

"I concede ! I concede! I can't do any more ! " Katya yelled as soon as she realized the tiger had gone down to the drugs.

I froze immediately, remembering the rules of the fight. The speaker buzzed again, voice still bored. " Penny Ack is the winner of this fight. A healer will be in to inspect and patch you both up in just a moment. "

I walked towards the girl, who looked like she had gone through a lot worse than a cut on the arm. " Are you ok? No offense but you look awful. "

She nodded at me, sitting down next to the sleeping tiger. " I'll be ok in a minute. My power takes a lot of energy to use. I can't do more than two or three big summons at a time. "

" Do you mind me asking how you did that? I don't want to be nosy, but that was crazy to see. " I tried to not sound too eager, but I realllllyyy wanted to know what kind of power could do what I'd just seen.

" It's fine. My power is turning words into things. I have to get blood on it though. Once the word has my blood on it I can focus and make it appear. If it's something alive, like the tiger, I can have it do what I want it to. " She was starting to get some color back, but still looked really bad.

The description of her power reminded me a lot of the librarian. She could bring books to life, and control the characters. I didn't even want to think about how strong Katya could be if she even got half of the Librarians power.

"That's an amazing power. I knew a lady once who could bring books to life, kinda like you do. She was insanely powerful. I think that if you keep working your power will be super strong one day. It's already impressive. I was only able to beat it because my own toys let me get around the obstacles you threw out. I know that there are certain things you could do that would stomp me into paste. " I wanted to encourage the girl, since she had suffered a loss on her first day. She seemed like a good person, and the type I would want to be a hero. She obviously wasn't here for glory or fame, she wanted to help people.

Katya seemed to perk up at that, which was good. I'd have felt awful having her drop out on the first day just because I'd beat her. " You really think I'll be that good one day? "

"I think you'll be a powerhouse if you train hard. Just keep working on it!" She smiled at me again, and a rough looking older boy in a grey uniform walked in.

"Who needs healing first? " He asked brusquely, not seeming to notice the obvious wound on Katya's arm.

" She does, I'm fine. " I told him in my best no-nonsense voice. As if the bleeding gash on Katya's arm wasn't a big enough give away.

"Fine." He grunted, and knelt in front of her. His hands started to glow, and he seemed to flick a glowing orb at the wound on her arm. As soon as it touched her she seemed to relax, arm going limp.

"Thanks. That part of my power always sucks. " Katya seemed genuinely grateful, despite the older boy having the same bedside manner as Mourning Dove.

"No problem. You ok? " He asked turning to me, hands still glowing.

"Yeah, all good. Thanks for patching her up. " I didn't like the way he acted, but it was a good idea to keep anyone with healing powers on your side.

He stood, and headed for the door, his patients apparently forgotten.

"Well he was a delight." I said as the door closed behind him.

Katya giggled. "Maybe not the nicest person, but he got me fixed up, so I'm OK with him. "

"At least he does his job. Come on, let's get you some water and a place to sit. You still look pale. " I helped Katya out of the room, and we headed for the conference room. I still needed to get to my next match, but I wanted to be sure my new friend ( I hope? Maybe? Ish?) was good to go.

I may have won this round, but there was still plenty to go.

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Detective Corey Walsh walked into the house, already surrounded with a police perimeter, caution tape, and the needed crime scene investigators. Still technically a detective, even when working under the authority of the FBI and DVA, Corey had kept the title for two reasons. The first was a reminder of what he was there to do, and the second was simply because people seemed to react better to police than to federal agents.

Corey was working as an investigator, and he planned to keep it that way. The Heroes may be the popular ones with the public, but they were essentially a combo of SWAT and wet-work with some disaster relief thrown in (when there was time to spare). He was thankful for the heroes, and what they did, but he had no illusions that they were in the same field.

Working under federal agencies as part of a task-force had been an interesting change. Originally a cop in Boston ( and a damn good one), Corey had seen a lot, but had been responsible for relatively little area. Now he worked all over the country with a team comprised of supers and humans, working on cases that involved variant humans and crossed state or district lines. Recruited for his skills as a super and as a detective Corey was not excited to leave his home, but he understood the potential good such a team could offer.

Before this team had started all investigation into variant human criminal activity had been done through the DVA. The issue with that method was the general lack of funds the DVA was allowed. No one wanted to admit it but the DVA did more work with less resources than the FBI and CIA. Working with the FBI had been a way to access their resources, and their people. Supers could be an arrogant lot, and some of the best investigators and CSI people he had ever worked with had been mundane humans. The FBI and DVA had run a recruitment effort through both agencies, NSA, CIA, and even looked through police records to scout for recruits in local police forces.

The end result was a team of twelve, divided into two units, capable of working together or separately. Heroes were the ones who actively fought supers or powereds, but his team had the authority to investigate and make arrests in cases against variant individuals, or in cases where the suspects were variant humans. They called in heroes when they had likely hostiles or offenders with violent pasts, but many cases they worked never saw hero involvement.

This was turning into a case that Corey dearly hoped would see hero involvement. A serial kidnapper had been operating for the past two years, and his team suspected that the victims were then sold to human trafficking rings. All the victims had been variant humans, 18 in total, with ten supers, three powereds, and five so young that there hadn't been testing establishing which side of the spectrum they lay on. Evidence was scarce, but the lack of witnesses, along with the fact that none of the kidnappers had been killed( or at least none had left behind any evidence of it ) pointed to supers abducting these children systematically.

No bodies had ever been recovered, and no witnesses had ever reported seeing the children again. They were simply gone. This case had always frustrated Corey. It was the one of the first cases he had taken on with this team, and it had been ongoing since they had formed. Still they lacked any leads, but children kept disappearing.

He had started hearing noises about moving the investigation, either in whole or in part, to a hero team months back. He personally thought the idea was awful, but the more that children disappeared the more he was of the opinion that any help was good help. Corey honestly had no idea how adding some super-powered muscle to the search and investigation would benefit the team, but if the DVA thought it was necessary, then there was likely a reason.

Today Corey was confronted with yet another blank crime scene, and yet another missing child. This one had been 7 year old Cash Martin, a super with aberrant physical traits. In this case the missing child had appeared to have been made of some sort of rock, a trait that had appeared slowly over some years, according to medical records the foster parents had provided. The kid had been pulled out of school due to bullying, according to the foster parents. He had been living and studying in their home for the last two years, since it had become apparent that the child would likely not be able to control the transformation.

Still classified as a super, his earth manipulation abilities had been manifesting for as long as the rock like skin had started showing. With full control of his abilities, he was a super, but he would likely live with many of the same issues powereds did due to his... **_odd_ **appearance. That was if he had any life at all. Corey shuddered at that thought. When they had arrived at the crime scene it had been entirely normal, not a thing out of place, no sign of any struggle, no sign that the budding elementalist had been scared or lashed out with his powers at all.

His family had been home at the time, Cash was simply finishing the days school work at his reinforced desk in the garage. The foster mother had gone to grab him for an early dinner, and he had been gone. The garage door had been covered when they converted it into a makeshift school room, and no one had seen or heard anything strange from the room in question. The child had simply vanished.

Corey walked into the house, meeting up with his own walking CSI lab, Brendon Havish. Brendon had greatly enhanced senses, which allowed him to analyze a great deal of evidence in minutes that would normally require a lab hours or days to work through. He had gone to school for forensics, and put that knowledge to good use for years at the FBI before being poached for Corey's joint team.

"Did we get _anything_ this time? " Corey said so quietly that no human would hear without having their ear directly in front of his mouth. Brendon, of course, could have heard him say it from the street.

"Nothing at all. It's becoming maddeningly obvious that we're being outplayed here, and I am beyond frustrated with it. " Brendon spoke in a rather posh accent, thanks to his mothers British origins. " There were no smells outside the families own, no particulates, no footprints, not a hair, not even a drop of spittle. I honestly have no idea how these people are accomplishing these kidnappings, much less how they do it with a total lack of evidence."

Brendon also spoke softly, but within the range of Corey's human hearing. The taller, pseudo British man could spot the slightest scuff of a shoe, smell as well as a bloodhound, hear far beyond the human spectrum, and his taste and touch were similarly enhanced, but slightly less useful in their field.

" Shit. I have to call that in, it's pretty solid confirmation that we're dealing with the same person or team as the rest of these. " Corey turned to leave the house, and deal with the more than unpleasant task of informing his superiors that they had another victim, and no evidence.

"I cannot say that I envy you in that task, oh fearless leader. " Brendon spoke with a heavy amount of English sarcasm, letting his leader get to the task at hand.

Corey left, and promptly typed in the new 20 digit secure number that he memorized every week. His boss was not the type of person that you contacted on a whim, and she had no desire to make contacting her an easy experience.

"Ma'm, this is Corey Walsh. I have another disappearance on case 1163. Exactly like the others." Corey held his breath, never quite sure how his boss would react to any news, good or bad.

" I'm not surprised. I've had that case on my watch list for some time now. It seems it's time to call in extra resources. I will have the people I decide on contact you about how the case will proceed." With a click the phone disconnected, and all Corey could do was wait.

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Jeremiah sat in the shabby apartment that was currently serving as a base of operations for modus operandi, pouring over files and photos on a bank of monitors that would throw off power for the whole building if they ran through the normal grid. To his side was Perception, typing away on a laptop that currently held more processing power than most businesses.

" Jeremiah , you have been assigned a new case to overlook. Please see the forwarded case file, and take action as soon as possible." The oddly accented voice of dispatch spoke over Jeremiah's earpiece, normally audible only to him, but Perception had obviously heard the order from the way she turned to look over at the team leader.

Perception had gotten into the habit of constantly piggybacking as much sensory input as she could manage, a habit that anyone who graduated the HCP would see as valuable training. Jeremiah saw it as a way for his team mate to constantly be in the loop on information he normally would not have been able to tell her, or at least not have been able to tell her immediately.

"Will do. Anything I should know that's not in the file, Dispatch? " Jeremiah enjoyed Dispatch, since she was one of the few people he had no need( or at least rarely needed ) to lie to.

"Only that the file is considered high priority by people high in the DVA ladder. I would advise making it a priority. "

"Thanks. We'll see to it. " Jeremiah turned to his teammate. " Any idea what this new shit show could be? "

"A few things have been bugging my DVA contacts, but nothing specific comes to mind. " Perception went back to her typing, but Jeremiah knew she would see the file as soon as he did. Technically a telepath, Perception had the ability to "Piggyback " onto other peoples and animals senses, and once connected she had the ability to manipulate those senses in any way she wished. She usually acted as an illusionist, but she also had the ability to overwhelm a persons olfactory receptors with foul smells, and even turn a persons sense of touch against them, causing extreme pain, up to the point of death. Definitely not a person to piss off.

That was before you included her skill with numbers. Specifically, algorithms and data processing. Perception had the ability to look at and find a way to convert huge data sets into usable information. It wasn't her only skill in subtlety, but the ability to write programs and algorithms capable of whittling down crime statistics and data points into patterns was what had drawn Jeremiah to her after she completed her internship. She was currently sifting through crime data on a drug ring run by teleporters out of mexico, doing geographical analysis and pattern recognition on the entry and selling points in hope of tracking down where the ring was run out of, and where the supply was made.

Jeremiah pulled up the file that hadn't been on his hard drive 45 seconds ago, and began to read. As he read all he could think was that he wished they had been called in sooner.

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	6. Chapter 6

Claire

I knew better than showing off my power, especially in such a public place. It had been dumb, really, but I hated seeing pricks like that get a pass. I know my ruse wouldn't have lasted forever, but I at least wanted it to keep up past the first year or two. Oh well. At least my power would fog over most of it, just leaving the impression behind. Maybe I could use that fear to my advantage...

But for now I needed to get to my match, and then loose terribly. Grabbing Michael's arm I hauled ass through the crowd, already knowing where both of our fights would be. I hated mom's stupid memory drills, but they sure as hell came in handy now. I needed to throw my fight, and get in to watch as many of the other fights as possible. Nick told me that watching the fights was a day of gladiatorial entertainment for everyone year two and up, so there had to be a way for me to get in and watch them.

Michael seemed to still be a little bit clouded as we walked ( read, I dragged him bodily ) through the halls. As we approached the door labeled for his fight I decided to give him a bit of encouragement . " OK, this is you. Get in there and kick some ass. "

He stared at the door for a moment, poor guy, before turning and nodding. " Thanks. Really. Thanks a lot. I guess I'll see you around in class. " He took a dozing step into the combat cell, and the door slid shut behind him.

I hoped he would do well, or at least not get curb stomped. But this was the HCP. Most wouldn't cut it, as the dean had so readily reminded us. I needed to focus on my own goals. But it couldn't hurt to cultivate assets moving forward...

With that though I hightailed it for my own fight. I knew I wouldn't be able to win this match, that would completely blow my cover, but I could use it to get some good intel on the other student.. Nick had been drilling me on information gathering, on a bigger scale than I had ever really needed before, but this would be just like back home in school. I could stay to the background, take my notes, and be ready to exploit( or have Ray and Claire exploit) the weaknesses I found.

Finding my room in what I assumed was record time ( I spent enough time diving through crowds at flash sales that I had developed some major skills) I skipped into the cell that would hold my first battle. My opponent was already there, trying to cover her obvious nerves with plastered on overconfidence. So basic, at least choose a fun emotion to fake.

I skipped right up to her, grabbed her hand, and started the most obnoxious hand shake I could. She faltered for a minute, then yanked away. " I don't know what the fuck you did to that guy in there, but you're not pulling one over on me!"

I knew that if I _wanted_ to I could easily do the same to her. She didn't have the mental strength to resist me, much less the ability to ignore my power. I had learned to feel out a persons mind ever since I nearly got shot by some mundane security guard back in middle school. This girl wouldn't present a challenge to me. But I had to stay in character. I needed to keep the little bits of my cover left.

"I don't know what you mean! I just had him draw on a mustache! And you have to admit, it was pretty funny. " I released her hand, and gave just the smallest push with my power. She would never notice, but it would make her more suggestible.

She blinked once, then twice. " I guess it was kinda funny. But I'm still gonna take you down!"

Good. I could work with that. " Maybe! I'm not really a fighter, but I can't wait to be a hero and help people! Let's do this!"

The speaker up above went through the same lines that Nick had told me about, no killing, don't go to hard, blah blah blah.

The challenge here would be to throw the fight without being horrible obvious about it. I couldn't just _quit,_ but I needed to bail out ASAP, and show as little of my skill as possible. The professors here knew what I could do, having seen our " admissions test " so I didn't need to fight to impress them.

"Begin "

As soon as the dude administrating the test let us start the girl I had learned was Katy burst into flames. Oh. That was perfect. I could pull the old phobia line, and bail out with a solid excuse.

Turning on my best "squeaky and terrified " voice I immediately started screaming. " I yield! She wins! "

Katy looked at me, obviously shocked. " That's it?! What the hell?"

" I hate fire! I'm.. I'm sorry, but we had a fire when I was a kid, and I can't stand it now. You win... " I started breathing as hard as I believably could, laying it on thick.

" Katy Spenser is the winner of this match. A healer will be in shortly to assess both of you before your next rounds." The voice confirmed what Katy had apparently not totally believed.

" Oh. Well. OK. I guess we have to wait for the healer before we can go. "

The door slid open a few seconds later and a dark skinned girl walked in, smiling wide. " Any one need healing here? "

Katy took the lead, since I was still putting on my panic attack show. " I don't think so. She has a fear of fire, so we didn't really fight. "

"Oh my. Here, give me your hand honey. " She reached for my hand, and as soon as I grabbed it a warm glow ran over my skin. It was warm and calming. I just wanted to sit and let this wonderful girl give me a spa day with nothing but this feeling.

But I had to stay in character, I could **not** afford break again, not so soon after my first fuck up. I slowed my breathing, and let my voice go back to what I had decided would be "normal" for the foreseeable future. "Whoa. That's amazing. What is that?"

The pretty healer smiled and explained. " My power lets me heal, but it also gives a sense of euphoria. It really helps with panic and calming people down. I learned just how useful that was sophomore year..."

Her smile faltered, and then I realized what I had missed. She was in white, which meant that she was one of the fifteen seniors. More importantly it meant that she had been here for the Lander attack, and she had come back after she lived through it.

She stopped herself, smiling again, and let go, turning to Katy. " How about you, are you good to go on the next fight? "

My opponent nodded. " Yeah, all I did was stand there. I'm fine. " I suspected that she had missed the reference to Lander's crucible, but that was likely for the best.

Well. I got the hard part over. Throwing a fight and making it look natural was harder than "sneaking" into an open area that was meant to house students watching the fights. The rest of my day should be a cake walk.

I just needed to find where the observation decks were.

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"Hi! I hear this is where we get to watch the fights! Who else is excited for this next round? " I strolled into a room with a collection of grey and a few white uniforms.

"This round is just about to start. Some issue with the external equipment one of them wanted to bring in. You got here just in time. " A boy with eyes that were pure white told me, obviously not blind from the way he took in my rather stunning form. He was handsome in a sort of goth way. He wore a messy swath of eyeliner around his milky eyes, accentuating his pale skin. A quick brush of my power told me that he had an unusually strong mind, but nothing extraordinary.

A quick pass into the changing rooms had gotten me a new, this time grey, uniform. I probably could have gotten away with my black one, but no reason to take the risk. In a mixed environment with three different classes present I figured no one would notice if another grey cloaked student walked in. I was right, apparently. The HCP should make memorizing the entire class roster a requirement, but they likely had far more... _Interesting_ security measures in place. Still, the classics were classics for a reason. Memory was harder to fool than a computer program.

"Well who do we have down there?" I asked the white eyed boy, giving a small swish as I walked up to him.

" Apparently someone who wanted to bring in a lot of knives. The professors put the kibosh on that until she could pass a skill test with them. They did let her bring in some other equipment, but I couldn't tell what. The other one also has outside equipment, but it's all on her belt, so no idea yet. " He turned to the window( really more like a glass wall ) as the older student at the mic started talking.

I admit I might have been ignoring him right up until he gave the competitors names. Jessica and Stacy. Shit. They had two of my dorm mates going against each other? That seemed like a good way to make enemies. But this was _excellent_ for my purposes. I could knock out two in one. Those two had struck me as serious competition, and I had the gut feeling that they weren't going to be the type to leave in the first round of dropouts. It didn't hurt that Stacy at least had insider knowledge that most kids didn't walk in with.

I politely shoved my way to the front of the pack of kids, a hint of my power helping them pass over the fact that a little girl was moving them out of the way. No way was I missing a second of this showdown.

Looking over the two of them didn't give me a lot of extra information. I hadn't had enough time last night to sift through all the heroes that related to insects, but Stacy didn't have a single one of her spider boxes with her. Odd. I may have been going on a wild goose chase about her power if she didn't really need the spiders. Well, I wouldn't need to wait long to find out the truth. She did still wear her lucky scarf, which was interesting...

Oh god. The scarf. I was so dumb. That brat had basically spelled it out for me too. I didn't have proof, but my Gut said I was right.

"Begin!"

The two girls below tensed, and then I was proved right. The scarf that I was such a big fan of seemed to melt, the materiel flowing over Stacy's skin like a liquid. Before I knew it there were strands of silk extending from each digit, reaching into the small belt pouches she had on her person. The strands engulfed what looked like dull metal marbles, likely a sanded ball bearing.

Stacy controlled _silk_. That was what she needed the spiders for, and that was why she insisted on wearing a scarf that was really a liability in combat to a combat trial. She wasn't stupid, she was hiding her main weapon in plain sight. She raised the spiders as her own little silk factory, and I had jumped on entirely the wrong train of thought.

Jessica wasn't idle while Stacy prepared her tentacles of silk. She had quickly reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a packet that had to be seeds. We already knew what she could do, but this would be a test of how _much_ she could do.

She didn't disappoint, at least on a showmanship level. The first seeds she pulled out exploded into a mass of bark and leaves, spreading over her, settling into a shape that resembled crude wooden armor, modeled after the type that the Japanese samurai had made. It still had gaps, but her vital organs and head were protected, and it covered most of her limbs, leaving gaps to allow mobility.

That fact turned out to be a very good thing as five of the thread tentacles that Stacy had tipped with ball bearings went flying at her. Three hit the wooden plates on her legs, but vines sprouted from Jessica's hand, attaching to the ceiling, and quickly pulling her up and away from the last two threads. The wood cracked, but held, strong enough to hold back the heavy bearings that Stacy used.

The five that Stacy had held back were weaving around her, apparently those were her defensive line. Not a bad idea, since they could respond to an attacker or projectile at the speed of thought.

As the last two threads missed Jessica's legs, and collided with the wall I realized I had made yet another mistake. Those weights had to be far heavier than regular ball bearings. Where the two had hit the wall behind where Jessica _had_ been the concrete( which Penny had informed me was actually not concrete ) cracked. There was no way the threads were moving with enough force to make regular ball bearings crack that wall. It must be something much denser, giving her swings more stopping power.

That meant the wood that had only cracked had to be **WAY** stronger than any natural wood I knew of. I filed that away for future reference.

Jessica had her vines growing and grabbing **_into_** the walls, puling her along at a quick pace. She had to be a moving target, if she stood still those threads would take advantage of the gaps she had left on her armor. She must have remarkable control over her plants, as she was pulled, flipped, and deposited in such quick succession that I had trouble following the movement.

Suddenly having her opponent behind her Stacy turned with surprising grace, trying to face her foe again. She was too slow, Jessica had already reached into her pouches again, and a thick tree stump was sprouting from her hand. The wood from the sprouting tree seemed to flow, engulfing Stacy's hands, completely ignoring the barrage of blows from the tentacles. Faster than I thought possible the wood had completely covered Stacy's hands, and continued over most of her lower body, but not going near her head or face.

That was likely to avoid any penalties for potential lethal force. This way Stacy was safely held, and there could be no accusation that she was in danger.

Stacy never gave up. We weren't able to see what she was attempting, but the determination and focus on her face gave away the struggle that had to be occurring. Three minutes seemed to drag on, the tension in the observation room palpable. It was only after the white clad boy had declared Jessica the winner that Stacy seemed to relax.

Oh. She didn't just relax, she seemed to crumple as the tree surrounding her returned to Jessica's hand as nothing more than a seed pod. Jessica caught her before she hit the ground, and whispered into Stacy's ear. She didn't seem to hear, and slowly Jessica lowered her to the floor, sitting beside her. The senior announced that a healer would be in shortly, and soon the same white clad girl that had been in my and Katy's fight came into view. She held onto Stacy's hand, and the girl seemed to come back to herself.

Soon the three girls left the combat cell together, and the watchers were freed from the spell over the room. A murmur shuddered through the room, people whispering over what they had seen. I didn't blame them. Jessica had put on quite the show, and anyone who was around the super powered world for long knew that an ecomancer was someone to watch. Even the lower-powered ones could be dangerous, and Jessica had shown she was at least a mid-range super.

I turned to leave the room, and started heading for the door. I could feel eyes on me, but my cover required that I act like I belong there, so I continued my trek to to the next combat cell. As soon as I got out of the observation room I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whirled, ready to fight, but recognized the white eyed boy who had given me the low down on the two competitors.

"I assume you're a freshy, since the security in this place would have lost it's shit if you were an outsider. " He looked at me with certainty. Damn. Apparently some of the students here were also fans of the classics.

I could play it coy, but he had obviously gone the route of knowing exactly who was in each class. But he also hadn't busted me in front of the other students, so maybe this wasn't a disaster.

"Caught me. I heard that the older students liked to bet on the fights, so I figured I would come along and watch the show. " I decided to play innocent, technically no one had said freshmen _couldn't_ watch the fights.

"Uh huh. And you just stumbled onto an HCP uniform that would ensure you went under the radar. " He started walking, arm on my shoulder like we were the best of friends, away from the observation room door.

" Well, I may have borrowed the outfit, just to avoid any awkward questions. " No reason to try and lie about stealing the clothes, he knew I didn't belong to the sophomore or junior classes. Still, he was guiding me away from the main mass of the students, something that I normally would never allow. But this was the HCP, there was no way they'd allow anyone crazy to stay around long.

"Of course. Look, I respect someone who knows the value of information, but I don't want to set the precedent that the upper classes are all made of idiots. Most of the people here are the brawler type, but between all of us there are a few people who know that fighting isn't the only way. " He continued his march, reaching an elevator that didn't look like the ones we had come down here on.

We stopped in front of the elevator, just long enough for him to press his palm to the door. It opened silently and with a small tug on my shoulder we stepped through. I needed to know where this was going. Being caught was bad enough, but I hated going into a situation completely blind.

"Should I be worried about an older student dragging me into an elevator with no witnesses ?" I wasn't truly worried for my safety, but it was a simple enough ploy to get some information on where we were headed.

"There are always witnesses in the HCP. This place has some of the best security on the planet. Don't be under the illusion you're ever unobserved here. " He released his grip as the doors shut, but he spoke with a certainty that made it clear he knew first hand about the security.

"Fine. There may be cameras down here, but it's not generally a good idea to go down unknown elevators with strangers. " I kept on the same track, hoping to guilt him into giving me information in hopes of making me feel safer.

"No, it's not. But if you're the type that's scared off by uncomfortable elevator rides then you're useless to the HCP, and you'll be gone by the end of the year. "

I nodded at him, deciding that farther pushing would likely get me no where. Soon enough the doors opened to a large room that looked to have once been a server room, cable connections running along the walls and ceiling, old server racks covered to prevent dust buildup. It was equally apparent that it now served a different purpose. A small cluster of 11 students sat in a mismatched array of chairs, a wall of salvaged monitors had been setup, and a small tower of computers was whirring away, splicing into the cables that crisscrossed the walls, and attached to the monitors that were the focus of the group.

"This is study hall. Normally we wouldn't have brought in any new students until the second semester, but if you insist on getting in trouble then you better learn from the best. I'm not sure how much you know about the HCP curriculum, but in second year you'll be introduced to specialties. After the attack on Lander some of the students from the subtlety specialty decided it was important to have, shall we say, a neighborhood watch, of sorts. They started study hall, and began training the other subtlety students in their free time. The professors here are damn good, don't get me wrong, but you can't learn everything in just a few hours of class. " He guided me towards the cluster of other students, who all seemed occupied with what was on the monitors. It took me just a second to realize that they were watching live feeds of the combat cells, all of the students either watching or taking notes.

"Meghan! I brought a new troublemaker from the pile of fresh meat upstairs. She decided to "borrow " ( yes, air quotes were used) a uniform from the lockers and sneak into the observation rooms. I figured we'd better get her in on the program before she got in over her head. " He addressed a white clad girl who was typing away on a laptop.

"I know dumb-ass. I heard you the first time you called for me. " She turned to me, and gave me a once over. She narrowed her eyes, obviously not pleased by something. " I can't read you. I don't like that. If you turn out to be more trouble than you're worth then I will make it my personal pleasure to not only see you out of _here_ , but to have you out of the HCP. Just because I can't hear your thoughts doesn't mean I can't remove you from play. "

I was honestly surprised. I knew Mary could read my thoughts, she had displayed that ability on multiple occasions in just the last day.

"You mean you're a telepath? I know my chaperone can read my thoughts. She never had any issue with it. "

Meghan snorted. " Of course she can. Mary is special. That girl could have been top of her class, but she went with the caretaker job instead. Never assume that _anything_ about Mary Smith is the norm. " With that rather cryptic remark she turned back to her typing, and I settled in to watch the fights. I still needed to do my job, even with this rather unexpected wrench thrown in the works.

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I turned to Briar ( the cute goth boy who had dragged me down here) and asked." So do the professors know about this place? It doesn't look very official, but you said everything was under heavy surveillance. "

He kept his eyes on the screens, watching a girl take blast after blast of fire, and still continue towards Katy, AKA little Miss pyro from my my first fight. " They do. You have to understand that the HCP is different from a more _traditional_ school. We found this place, we built the equipment, and we do the work, but they _let_ us do it. We would have no chance of breaking into the video feeds if the professors didn't allow us to. They may not acknowledge that we exist publicly, but the fact that they _let_ us exist is a sort of... silent approval from them. If we push too far, or try and go where we shouldn't we all know we'd be shut down. We play within the boundaries and they let us have our club house. "

I nodded, understanding. It was similar to the Chinatown agreement back home. Everyone knew what happened there, but could never admit to that. Still, it's continued existence meant that they approved, or at least understood why it existed.

"I can see how that would work out. Who does the training though? The seniors? " I kept most of my focus on the ongoing fights, but I wanted to understand the rules here. Especially if I already had a suspicious senior telepath on my back.

"We all do. A lot of people come in here with skills to share, and those who don't usually find an area to specialize in. You can't make it into the HCP without a few good selling points, especially if you don't have an impressive power. You'll eventually start teaching others here, and those will then teach others. It's a cycle, and it has the upside of constantly improving the level of skill and power our HCP brings to the table. " Briar was also focused on the screens, but he was looking on in a more passive manner. He wasn't in direct competition with those students, so while he wanted to know their powers and abilities as much as much as anyone with my _tendencies_ his continuation in the HCP wasn't based on out-thinking and outfighting those students.

"Is Meghan the head bitch in charge around here?' I asked, not bothering to keep my voice particularly low, since said bitch would simply hear it from Briar's thoughts.

" No, that dubious honor goes to the number one student in the senior class, Nancy. We all just call her Nan though. Hates the name Nancy, says its for old women and grandmas. " He smirked, and I had to agree, it was kinda funny that the most powerful student in the senior class was named _Nancy_ for gods sake.

"But a word of advice, don't fuck with her to much. She's the best for a reason, and I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath. " He was serious, but he had no malice in his voice. Mostly respect. Nancy ( or Nan, if I wanted to keep my head) must be a badass to get that much respect from someone who didn't seem to give many fucks about what people thought.

"I'll keep that in mind. When do we start training down here though? I want to get in as much as I can. Can't afford to get rusty. "

"In the next two or three days. The upper classes have significantly less time to screw around in then the lower years, so it will be a bit before we begin. But if you want I could do a one on one with you until we start group training. " He looked at me with grin, obviously asking me out for more than just a workout.

"Why sir! " I said, adopting the worst British accent I could muster up . " I would be delighted to accompany you for a training session!"

Having someone who knew the lay of the land be in your good graces was always a good thing, and it didn't hurt that he was kinda cute too. I could make this work...

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Ray

My first fight had been easy. Far too easy, honestly. I had gotten used to fighting real villains and sparring with adult heroes back home. Coming here and facing off against someone who obviously had no training fighting, much less fighting someone with powers was a shock to my system. Someone who could make glowing weapons appear sounded impressive until you realized that the poor guy had literally no experience _using_ the weapons. It had been over in less than a minute, finished off with a quick blow that shattered his knee.

I felt a little bad about that, but I didn't want to risk him getting in a lucky hit. Plus, the HCP had healers on staff, so there was no permanent harm done.

This round had not gone as smoothly.

My opponent had gotten in a small hit on my hand when I had attempted to attack his legs( Ettin had told me early on that for someone with a lot of strength the legs were an ideal target, since you had a low chance of killing your opponent. ) and I had felt a bit of something wet on my skin. I mistook it for sweat at first, the adrenaline of the fight making me loose my normal thought processes. As my vision swam I realized that it had definitely not been sweat, but more likely some sort of sedative.

My hit to his leg was certainly hurting my foe, the way he stood making that abundantly clear. Unfortunately the poison was also making it difficult for me to stay conscious and standing myself.

"Give it up. That shit'll put down a bull, you've got no chance. You already won your first fight, no reason to keep wasting my time. " The punk currently taunting me was Sharif, according to the speaker watching over our fight.

I only had one real chance to turn this crap show into a victory. Ettin had told me about how he and his mentor, Titan, had overcome their lack of range in combat. He'd even given me some of the lighter versions of the ultra-dense marbles that they used. I would have been an idiot not to take their advice, so I had started drilling with them on top of my usual workout.

Reaching a hand into the pocket of my uniform I tried to grip onto the rough metal ball, my body and vision wavering due to the drugs I had been slipped. I needed to focus, this was how I could prove that I belonged here, that I had the power to be a hero here. My fingers tightened on the sphere, and I focused my vision, trying to see through the waves that clouded my eyes. I pulled the bearing out, focusing on the knee that had gone untouched. If he couldn't stand then the match was mine. I threw, adding enough force that it would disable the limb of the average person.

My training had paid off, as the bearing flew fast and true, Sharif not paying enough attention to me to dodge. He though he had already one the battle, so why bother focusing on a downed opponent. My senses were better than any human, but the crack that came from the shattering of Sharif's knee likely would have been audible to anyone in the room.

He went down, cursing up a storm. I had heard a lot of creative language in my days, Claire being one of the best users of curse words I had observed. He was nearly on her level, but he lacked the creative touches that made Claire's cursing so well done. With both legs down and me out of reach the fight was called quickly.

A rather pretty dark skinned girl rushed over to Sharif's side, holding glowing hands to his exposed flesh. "Hold still! I need to have skin contact to fix you up. "

He moaned something, but I never found out what. With the fight officially over I gave up my hold on conciseness, not even feeling my body hit the ground.

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I woke up in a rather comfortable bed, and my first instinct was to go back to sleep. My body had tended towards more extremes after getting powers. I ate a lot more, and when I slept I was out like a light. It was a small price to pay for getting such cool powers, and for getting to work alongside my girlfriend.

The girlfriend who was currently shaking me like a Bond style martini. "RAY! You're _not_ going back to sleep ! We have to go see the final match! Jessica's in the finals, and Claire wants us to cheer for her. "

"What happened?" Ok, I was still groggy. Whatever that guy had dosed me with was taking it's time to clear out of my system.

Penny looked embarrassed for a moment before telling me." You technically won your match, but the drug that asshole used on you didn't clear out fast enough for you to make your third fight. They had to disqualify you. I'm sorry, I know you wanted to show your skills today. " I was a bit shocked that Penny had "stooped" to using traditional curse words, but it was also sweet that she cared so much.

Penny grabbed me in a quick hug before pulling away. " Come on minion, you know Claire will have her revenge if we miss this fight. "

I knew she was right. We may never know when, or how, but that girl would see vengeance served. With Penny helping me through the halls ( Read- dragging my groggy behind at speed) we made good time to the combat viewing area. The large room overlooking the cell was crowded with people in all uniform colors, and I even saw a couple of the professors standing in the crowd, obviously interested in who would take the metaphorical crown.

The brackets were originally separated by sex, but once the competition got to this level the difference in body size and strength was nearly moot, so the top boy and top girl would be competing for the overall top rank in the freshman class. This would be determining the top of the heap, and I couldn't wait to see what happened.

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Corey was a bit more shocked than he wished to admit to when a group of four suddenly appeared in front of him, only to have one of them disappear once more. As a teleporter he was used to seeing the annoyed or surprised looks on peoples faces when he pulled that stunt, but it was different having it done to you.

A man in a dark outfit seemingly made of nothing but pockets stepped forward, reaching out a hand. " Hi. I'm Jeremiah, and these are my teammates, Perception and Deficit. We've been called in on case number 1163. Apparently someone pretty high up decided you needed some extra fire power. "

Corey tried to keep his face blank, but that was easier said then done. In the end he decided on honesty, even if he might piss off some powerful people.

"I know that my boss wanted hero involvement in this, and don't get me wrong, I respect what y'all do, I just don't see how having someone who throws tanks around for fun will help this case. But I have been ordered to read you in, and I'm sure as hell not gonna piss _Her_ off. "

Jeremiah smiled, and I thought I saw just a tiny bit of a grin on the woman's face, perception, he called her. I looked to the other one, and he gave me the weirdest feeling. Looking at him felt... Slippery. Like he would stop existing if I so much as blinked. I noticed the _four_ guns the man had strapped onto himself, and was impressed to say the least. I love me a good old gun nut, hell, I was one myself.

"Your team has DVA clearance, so I'll do a little bit of explaining too, I suppose. Shall we sit? " Jeremiah motioned towards the chairs setup around one of our teams meeting and staging rooms. I had already retrieved most of the evidence and files, but since I needed to give the rundown I took the liberty of getting the rest setup in advance.

"Make yourselves at home. I have the feeling you'll be seeing a lot of this room, if history has any measure. " We made our way to the chairs, each settling in for what was undoubtedly going to be a long night.

"Thank you. Now, before we get to your case I want to give you a little more information than we normally make public. When a hero graduates they must have chosen a discipline, or major. Each one is different, but my team all comes from the subtlety major, otherwise known as the dirty tricks brigade. We all have different areas we excel in, but consider us the spies, manipulators, and undercover agents of the hero world. We're not the popular, well known heroes, but we do our job, and we do it damn well. " Jeremiah looked comfortable talking about things that many people would shy away from. He had obviously come to terms with the fact that he was in a less than honorable field, and was no longer afraid to say that out loud.

But on the upside he may be useful. Way more useful than I had guessed at first. Just more proof to not disregard the orders that She gave, even when they seemed fucking stupid.

"Well, I gotta admit this is better than I was expecting. I thought She was putting heroes on the case to make it look better, but if you all do what you say you do then I think you'll be downright useful. Now, did She tell you how she wanted things run, or are we just making it up as we go along? "

"I was given the authority to make that call. Bluntly, I think this case is a shitstorm waiting to happen. Almost 20 missing children, and no physical evidence or witnesses. Plus, these are just the ones we know about. It's highly likely that these people are also taking the opportunity to grab up any supers or powereds they can find living on the streets."

"My team thought the same thing, but it's near impossible to track those groups. They're constantly moving, just trying to stay alive and not get lynched in the fucking streets. Those kids do everything they can to be untraceable, hell they try and be invisible. I threw what I could at that angle and came up with nothing but suspicions. " Corey hated to admit it, but he and his team had felt useless on this case. His voice was strained, with a mixture of anger, frustration, and sadness.

Perception took the break in his speech to speak up. " Sir, I know what your team has done, and I've looked at all the numbers for your entire teams existence. You all do good work, and put up results. This isn't an attack on you or your people, but you don't have the resources that we do. We can do things and go places that no federal agent would be allowed into. This type of case is why subtlety heroes exist. "

Jeremiah nodded at the other team's leader. " She's right. Your team is good, so good that I plan on working with you all on this. Having a dozen trained supers to throw at this is a resource that only an idiot would turn down."

Corey snorted. " You don't seem like the dumb type, even if I didn't know you were a hero."

"Thank you. Now, my team is made up of subtlety heroes, and most of us aren't the type to go for traditional combat. Normally I'm the face of the team, but Perception and Deficit are two of my teams best at this sort of work, so they'll be working in the offices, along with keeping up their normal hero duties. This case is a priority, but it's not the only thing we're responsible for. They'll be in and out, but expect them around for a while. There is one more person that will be working directly with your team, but he is currently on assignment. You may be familiar with Jack of All?"

"Shit. Yeah, I've seen quite a bit about him and his whole test group. I though he was working in Brewster, with Titan and his ilk? " Corey tried to keep up to date on heroes in general, but the news that four powereds had made it into the HCP, and then graduated had shaken the country. He had certainly heard of the new hero, but he was surprised to find the man associated with a team of sneaks.

"We've tried harder than you would believe to make the situation seem that way to the public, but he is interning under me. He'll be the hero assigned to work with your team in any combat situations that may arise, along with myself to supervise.

Corey nodded at the hero, finally feeling a bit of hope that they might get somewhere on this damned case. " Well, let's get to it. There's a lot to go over. "

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 **Authors note**

Yo. I'm messing around a bit in this chapter, trying to make the points of view work how I want them to. If you all find it hard to follow, or just hate them let me know and I'll re-write with a single POV per section and see how that feels. Also for anyone who knows the SP canon, yes, I'm fluffing it a bit, but I see no direct canon conflicts. If there is an issue you find feel free to PM me about it. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Also the chapters will move a bit faster after this. I want to lay a good ground work for the story, especially for those who may not be familiar with the SP story line. Please bear with me.


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